Emily Kaldwin: Void-singer
by Adamant39
Summary: A twist of fate leaves 10 year old Emily Kaldwin responsible for the empress' death, and given mysterious powers by the Outsider. With Corvo taken by Daud, the loyalists lost, and Dunwall in chaos, the young empress will have to rely on help from unlikely sources... One thing is certain. Dunwall will never see it's children the same way again.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**So i'm hyped for dishonoured two, and hyped after playing dishonoured one. let's see how far i get with this before the hype dies down, eh?**

Prologue

 _"_ _What do you do with a drunken whaler, early in the morning…"_

Emily Kaldwin looked across at Thomas, sat in the garden beside her, who was staring at her with a confused expression. "Whatcha doin'?" He asked. "You sung the notes wrong!"

She giggled, picking a daisy and looking around at the gardens of Dunwall tower. "It's called harmonising." She said, idly picking at the petals. "It sounded nice, right?" Thomas nodded, cautiously, and she continued. "One of the maids taught me it. She says you need to have a strong will, and be able to 'stay resolute to your tune' or something." The ten year old boy curled his nose up. "Yeah, for an empress-to-be strong will means harmonising. Where I come from, strong will means not getting shanked down a back alley."

He made a stabbing motion, and Emily giggled. When she had asked her mother what a 'shank' was, she had been _harshly_ scolded, while Corvo had looked on, chuckling in amusement. Speaking of whom…

The boat lift to the tower began to clunk into noisy action, and guardsmen rushed to position, with cries of "The lord protector!" Circulating around them. Emily gasped and pulled Thomas to his feet, her white dress contrasting with his dirty brown rags. "Corvo's back, Corvo's back! Quick, you need to get out of here! If he sees someone like you snuck up here, he'll, he'll- he'll shank you!"

Thomas laughed. "Don't you say it, it sounds weird! Alright, see ya!" Waving her goodbye, he climbed up a pillar and disappeared over the edge, sparing a look back as Emily ran to her father figure. Grinning at his eighth successful sneak into the Empress' tower, he began the long, treacherous descent to the river below, and the city past it. A few metres down however, he spotted something flicker into vision in the corner of his eye. He turned, recognised the mask of the figure-no, figures, that had appeared on the rooftop, and blanched. "Welp, screw this I'm out." He muttered, before diving the long distance down to the water.

. _.

Emily kicked her boots, sighing. Corvo had just got back, and after a too short game of hide and seek, he was talking to her mother about _business._ Ugh. She glanced to the surrounding rooftops, looking for Thomas on his descent, and then frowned. "Why are they climbing on the rooftops?" No sooner had she said it than some terrifying figure appeared out of nowhere, wearing a mask and carrying a pistol and sword. She screamed and clung to her mother as Corvo engaged. She saw him slice at one of the assassins, but it just vanished, and as two more appeared and charged him, another blinked into vision before her. She screamed and it took her arm and flung her to the floor, bearing down on her mother, before with a yell of rage Corvo flung himself between them, slicing again. The assassin vanished and reappeared behind them, but Corvo spun and fired the pistol point blank. That one fell with a gasp right beside Emily, who screamed and scrambled away from it, wide eyed. One assassin reached a hand out and gripped Corvo in some sort of green field, trapping him, but Corvo managed to twist his wrist and fire his pistol at that one, and it vanished, freeing him. A voice rang out. "He's mine! Get the empress!" And a man in red dashed in out of nowhere, grabbing Corvo and making them both vanish, while another bore down on Emily's mother. _Nonononono!_ Emily spun her head around, saw one assassin blink in and grab the body of its comrade before vanishing, the sword clattering from the hand of the deceased. _The sword…_ Her hands clasped around its hilt. She turned just to see an assassin grab her mother, and unthinking, charged forwards, ramming the blade at the masked figure, but it noticed her and vanished, leaving her blade to stick into… something else…

A few moments later, Hiram Burrows, the royal spymaster, arrived with a group of soldiers, and stopped in pure horror. Instead of the scene he was expecting: the empress dead, her daughter gone, and Corvo there to be incriminated, he was instead met by the sight of Emily Kaldwin, wailing in anguish, with a blade hilt deep in her dead mother.

._.

Close, yet faraway, the Outsider looked at the scenario with a fascinated, predatory smile on his face. Hiram Burrows wasn't the only one who was surprised. _"Forget Corvo."_ He thought to himself, rubbing his ethereal hands together in anticipation. _"I'm going to follow_ her _with great interest…"_

 **Void-singer: Emily Kaldwin**

 **Have some intensity with your intro! Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and if you did please review and say so! The next chapter should already be up, so read on if you want, and see y'all!**


	2. Chapter 2: Sleepwalking

**Hey, you kept reading! Thanks! anyway, continuing with the drama...**

Sleepwalking

Adjusting his suit, the soon to be lord regent, Hiram Burrows, walked purposefully towards a very specific door in the tower. Strange, dissonant notes reached his ears, and he sighed, preparing, when he turned the corner, to confront the overseer cranking a music box outside the room of Emily Kaldwin. "Why are you playing that awful sounding thing?" He asked the golden masked man.

Not stopping winding the box, the overseer shrugged. "It wards off demons and servants of the Outsider, sir."

Hiram nodded condescending. "Yes. So why are you playing that awful sounding thing?"

He couldn't tell, but underneath the mask, the man was probably glaring. "With respect, sir, under an hour ago this child stabbed her mother _, the empress,_ to death, before screaming herself to sleep. Surely you realise that this must be the work of some evil force?"

 _Foolish, religious little…_ Hiram sighed. It had already been a long day and it was nowhere near over. "Outsider or no Outsider, I must see her."

He brushed past the overseer and opened the door, attempting to adopt his caring face, but was still stopped short by what he saw. Alit by a small, high window, he could see Emily. She was curled up in a ball on the bed, crying, white dress still stained red by her mother's blood. "My dear." He started. "Did no-one clean you up?"

She recoiled, before shaking her head. "No-one wanted to touch me. "They said I was… called me a…"

 _Murderer. Treasonous. Heretic._ The words ran through both their minds. Hiram sighed. "Now, now my dear, I'm sure that they-"

"Where's Corvo?" The question took him of guard. "Corvo?" He spluttered. "Well… Corvo vanished."

"They took him!" She yelled. "The ones who killed mother, they took him, you have to find him!"

Hiram coughed. "Well, you see, people may not want to do that-"

"They have to!" Emily almost screeched, her voice cracking. "They- I'm the empress- the empress' daughter!"

"Well, you see, that's what I've being trying to say." Hiram stated nervously. "No-one knows what to tell the public yet, but everyone who witnessed the event seems to believe there was some… ah… demonic presence." He shuffled closer. She shuffled further away. "Now, if you were willing to tell the public that you were putting me in charge during your-ah, rehabilitation, I could get a word in to the high overseer, ensure this rubbish about the Outsider is pure nonsense, and-"

"No!" She crawled against the backrest. "Corvo didn't trust you! I don't trust you! I bet you told those monsters to kill mother!"

"No! Miss Kaldwin!" He yelled. " _You_ killed your mother!" Emily choked on her words, and her eyes rolled back into her head as she collapsed.

._.

Emily was dreaming, but she couldn't think. Someone was speaking, but she couldn't hear. Everything seemed… off… but she couldn't see. The notes of some horrible, atonal melody were driving a spike of pain through her mind and she couldn't think straight. Then suddenly, with a cacophony of rodent-like squeaking, it stopped. She sat up. She was still in her bed, but her room was strange, ethereal looking, the light from the one window, high above her, swamping the room in an eerie blue glow. And a strange man was stood beside her bed. " _Well._ " He said, black irises glinting in the pale light. " _Now that that awful thing isn't running interference, we can speak. Greetings, miss Kaldwin. I am the Outsider."_

The Outsider, the one who there was an entire religious force of overseers dedicated to opposing. Somehow, that fact failed to bother her much. Calmly, she asked, "Did you kill my mother?"

The Outsider smiled. " _Not directly. I was the one who gave those assassins their little vanishing tricks, among other special gifts. Rest assured that had I known this would come of it, well, I would probably have given them more. You'll forgive me, but this is the most interesting event I have had the pleasure of meddling in for a long while. Ah, but where are my manners."_ He extended a hand.

She knew she should have been panicking about now, screaming, but something about the Outsider seemed to exude calm, as though dulling her emotions. Tentatively, she reached out to shake, but gasped and drew her hand back as she noticed a strange symbol emblazoned on the back of her palm. "Wh-what?"

" _Consider this my apology. The mark of the Outsider. A gift for the one who brought about your mother's death, and a gift for the one desperate to redeem her. Poetic, don't you think?"_

He vanished, just in time for the door to burst open and a swarm of rats to come pouring through the aperture. She screamed and stood up on her bed, looking for an escape, her eyes alighting on the window high above her. She reached up, jumping and flexing her fingers, knowing there was no way she could reach it-

The symbol on her hand glowed, and a blue tendril shot out from her fingers, latching onto the window ledge. Her fingers tightened on the tendril reflexively and even as she let out an "eep!" of surprise, she was pulled up to the ledge. She barely got her feet under her and balanced tenuously before jumping forwards onto what looked like a slate roof. She rolled to a stop, looked around, and gaped. The world was gone. The sky was a dark purple with chunks of buildings and ships just… floating there. If she squinted into the distance, she could almost make out a whale.

 _"_ _Welcome to my domain."_ Emily jumped at the sudden sound, spinning to see the Outsider stood there watching her. " _I could talk for eternity, literally, on its significance, but I can imagine you're in quite a rush to leave it. So go on, get used to your new skills. You'll need them soon enough."_

He vanished, and Emily, in a daze, just nodded, and looked across the rooftops.

._.

Three grapple's later, Emily pulled herself to the ground outside the tower, landing in the bushes and crouching there. She looked back at the building, seeing the twisted, floating version of her home, before looking forwards to see something strange. Three assassins, her mother and Corvo, all apparently frozen in time as though the moment had been immortalised through this strange world. The Outsider appeared beside her again. " _One of them holds the key to move forwards, but you cannot see it, can you? You will have to see without seeing, gaze through the void. I am curious as to how."_

He vanished and she thought, gazing at the scene in front of her. _See without seeing_ … Her gaze drifted over Corvo's frozen form, remembering how, just hours earlier, he had been playing hide and seek with her. She had…

Slowly, tentatively, she put her hands over her eyes. Something changed, the edges of her vision blurring and the darkness her closed fingers forced upon her eyes no longer feeling quite so intense. She dropped her hands and gasped. The darkness was gone. She could see everything as though it was (a bluey) midday, but the light was source-less, as though everything just glowed. More importantly, the figures in front of her were highlighted yellow, as well as what looked like their areas of vision, and she could see a green key on the back of one assassin's belt. She moved forwards to grab it. When she did so, everything changed. Her mother vanished, and the assassin's guises fell away into merely shadowy forms, her new sight highlighting more appearing around and nearby, staggering away from her in shock, calling to each other in words she couldn't understand. She whipped her head around, confused, _what was going on-_

When one drew a weapon, she began to move in a blind, hurried panic. She launched a grapple towards the boat lift building, then another further in, she crossed a corridor, saw a door, slammed the key into it praying it would open, it did, she ran through onto a balcony, she saw a route down and away, she looked back once, and she fled.

._.

Almost half an hour later, she collapsed into a street, far from the tower, she was still in the dream, they could still be coming for her-

" _Relax, young one."_ She spun to see the Outsider stood there, chuckling. " _You have evaded them for now. I'm sure that the next time those guards see you, they will not be feeling merciful."_

"Guards?"

" _Yes. You should thank me. You are out of the way of Burrows' manipulations, and well on your way to redeem your mother."_

Emily looked at him with increasing nervousness. "What do you mean? This was a dream, right?"

The Outsider smiled, and began to fade. _"Do not make assumptions, young lady. You may have been dreaming…_

 _But that doesn't mean you were asleep."_

As he faded, so did the ethereal quality of the world, she wasn't in some void at all-

And then it hit her, like a series of hammer blows. It hadn't been some horrid dreamscape, it had been her real home, those shadowy figures that had chased her had been guards, and the rats… the rats had been real. Shaking, she lifted her hand to before her face. The symbol was still there. She, Emily Kaldwin, had just consorted with the Outsider, and used his power to escape the Dunwall Tower… Her brain shut down, and she collapsed, unconscious, onto the broken pavement.

 **Man, that Outsider is a tricky deity. So emily's out. What will she do? Find out soon! Please review, and see y'all!**


	3. Chapter 3: Interlude

Interlude:

The lord regent

"Drink up." Stated High Overseer Campbell, passing the whisky to the lord regent. "And tell me again what you saw."

Hiram Burrows laughed, before downing another glass. "Oh, it must be troubled times old friend. Not only do you believe my reports will be more accurate when drunk, a politician is trying to convince a man of the faith of a demon's influence!"

Campbell sighed. "Look, it was a stressful day, everything was in uproar, it's understandable if you mistook-"

"NO!" Hiram interrupted, slamming down the drink. "I know what I saw, old friend, so listen well. The girl fell unconscious the moment I told her _she_ had stabbed her mother, and she began twitching, her one hand smoking as though being burned. Then, I heard the music from your overseer stop, apparently because a swarm of rats from nowhere attacked him! But that wasn't the worst of it, no, for the moment the music stopped, she sat up! Her eyes were unfocused, irises black, and she began speaking with someone who wasn't there! I tried to snap her out of it, but she didn't hear me, and when the rats burst into the room, she fired some horrible _thing_ from her palm and it carried her out through the window. I saw a symbol glowing on her hand, and it was the Outsider's mark alright, I can see it now, clear as day!"

Campbell rested his hand against Hiram's shoulder. "Calm down man! If you're right, I will have to send Overseers to all the suspected places of Outsider worship throughout Dunwall. It is there her powers will grow, and the stronger she becomes, the bigger threat she poses. You know what happened to the last person the Outsider marked, you ordered him to kill an empress!"

"Sshhh!" Hiram urged, looking around the room in Dunwall tower. Their voices had been steadily rising, but he couldn't let his secret slip out in drunkenness. "No." He replied, almost at a whisper. "She can't become another Daud. But we will have to find some way to bring her back here, or else she will destroy us."

Campbell looked down in thought. "…Maybe we shouldn't bring her back here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we know rumours will spread claiming the young Kaldwin to be a budding witch. What if we speed them along? If Emily were hunted and killed by my overseers… What would be between you and the throne?"

._.

The street rat

Thomas deposited his loot in front of Griff, the 'fence' for Bottle Street, his home. A string of copper wire, a bottle of hemlock essence, and a kingsparrow feather. He had also found a phial of Sokolov's elixir, but he was keeping that to himself. With the plague spreading and turning a sixth of the neighbourhood into weepers already, anything that provided some protection was helpful.

Griff looked at it, nodded, and began counting coins from his pocket. "This ain't as much as you normally bring me."

Thomas shrugged. "Security's been tightened since that craziness at Dunwall Tower, (which they still won't tell us about, by the way), and that was, like, two days ago. That mad genius Sokolov's getting a bunch of his defence tech implemented, they're hooking up a wall of light just between here and the posh district. Hey, Didja know I was just leaving that place when the empress got shanked?"

Griff looked up and grinned. "Oh? Visiting your bird again?"  
Thomas pouted and stuck out his tongue. "Emily's not my _bird_! I'm 10! And she's probably empress right now! I don't even care about her that much, I just find it funny that-"

Suddenly, speakers crackled to life. " ** _Attention Dunwall citizens. Once heir to the throne, Emily Kaldwin, has murdered the Empress and escaped Dunwall tower through the use of dark magic bestowed upon her by the Outsider. Guards are advised to use lethal force to prevent further witchery, and civilians are urged to come forwards if they can provide accurate information on her whereabouts."_**

Thomas' jaw dropped. "She…no…I gotta…"

Griff looked at him in amusement. "Not your bird, huh?"

._.

The loyalist admiral

Admiral Havelock paced violently around the Hound Pitts pub, muttering darkly to himself. "I don't believe this. Hiram Burrows? Lord Regent? This is ridiculous…"

Beside him, Samuel took a puff from his cigarette. "I'm more worried about that young Emily."

Havelock sighed. "True, all this talk of her being a witch… How are we going to get her back on the throne if everyone thinks she's worshipping the void?"

Samuel shrugged. "If you need me, sir, just let me know."

Havelock sighed. "Thank you, Sam, but I'm not sure a river man will be much help. I need to gather those in positions of power. Overseer Martin might be willing to help me, the younger Pendleton brother, and I'm sure that technician I met once would help; the one who got kicked out of the university, what was he called?"

"Pierro, sir, Pierro Japlin." Samuel stood straighter. "With respect, sir, I may be more useful than you think. I know people, in the gangs and on the streets. I know you think the lord regent has Emily locked up somewhere, but if she is out on the streets, I can help you find her."

Havelock walked over and clapped the old boatman on the shoulder. "You're a good man, old friend. We need to get the empress on the throne, with the right people backing her. Otherwise, this city will fall so far into chaos; we won't be able to bring it back."

The dishonoured protector

 _Burrows._

 _You requested a dead empress and a captured child. Yet you neglected to tell me about Corvo, and therefore I lost a good man. In that, we both failed, and so I will not request more money for the inconvenience. But this talk of a witch-daughter interests me. You want her out of the way, which I understand. Rest assured, if I find Emily Kaldwin, you will not see her again._

 _Daud._

Signing the paper with a flourish, Daud handed it to one of his assassins, who promptly vanished to deliver the letter in a suitably unnerving way, such as right into the lord regent's pocket without him noticing.

Flexing his fingers, Daud walked through his base in the flooded district to the prisons, where he entered The Room. Contained within, locked in restraining stocks, was Corvo Attano. He had already almost escaped. Twice. Daud crouched in front of him, and he lifted his head, eyes blank.

Carefully, deliberately, Daud removed his glove and showed the symbol on his hand. "Do you see this?" He asked. Saying nothing, Corvo nodded.

Daud continued. "This is what makes me the most dangerous assassin in the isles. Some of its power bleeds out to my subordinates, allowing them to perform the magic you have witnessed. On a side note, they will kill you if you attempt to escape again." He put the glove back on. "And yet. Despite being attacked by several of these teleporting, well equipped assassins, you held them off until I arrived, and even killed one. Even I couldn't stop you until I dropped you a dozen feet and injected you with three sleep darts while I froze time."

Corvo's lips twitched upwards in a grim smile.

"You have impressed me, Attano. And so I am giving you a chance." An upraised eyebrow was the only response he got. "The world is changing, Corvo. The Outsider is pulling out all the stocks to make things interesting. Plague runs rampant in the streets. People are carving runes and charms from whalebone, turning to the Outsider for power, and he gives it to them, even as it drives them mad. They aren't like me. Or young miss Kaldwin."

At the mention of Emily, Corvo jerked in his restraints, straining against them on reflex. Now Daud was wearing a grim smile. "Of course you didn't know. Your precious little empress has been marked by the Outsider and hurled out onto the streets, alone and afraid."

Corvo had stopped resisting, and was now staring directly at Daud, hanging onto his every word.

"My chance is this. You will help me find the shrines to the Outsider formed by the city's desperate citizens, and you will help me neutralise those people who may begin to be dangerous. In return, when your path leads you to Emily Kaldwin, I will leave her in your care."

Corvo waited a good few seconds, before opening his parched mouth and speaking. "Why me?"

Daud smiled. "One, because of your impressive display in defence of your empress. Two, you have an artefact crafted by the outsider from the body of an empress specifically for that purpose, it's a dead giveaway."

" _The new empress' subjects are rats…"_ came the lamenting voice of Jessamine Kaldwin, and Corvo gripped The Heart as it pulsed to the bone charms nearby.

 ** _So this concludes the prologue part of this story, and yes, i'm leaving Corvo the heart. let's face it, if you were a ten year old wandering around with the voice of your dead mother, you'd probably go insane. Then again, next chapter, who knows who she's going to encounter? Review with comments, advice, or story suggestions, and prepare for the next chapter on sunday. See y'all!_**


	4. Act 1: Chapter 4: Rats and Rags

Act 1: From the streets.

Rats and Rags

"Dearie, Dearie, wake up Dearie, granny has broth for you…" Emily woke up with a start, looking around. For a moment she could almost pretend that she was back in her room at the tower, and that the woman at her bedside was her mother. But she had fled from her home, and was laid on some destroyed mattress in a dark, dingy room. She had killed her mother, and the woman at her bedside was… something else.

She shrank away from the crooked old lady with shrunken, damaged eyes looming over her. "Wha- Who are you, where am I?"

The lady cackled. "Oh, everyone knows Granny Rags Dearie. You were out with the rats, trying to see everything, but you were tired, so granny took you here. Your frock was filthy, no good for a party, but granny has her ways, oh yes dearie, and your pretty little white clothes won't get dirty anymore, no…"

Emily shook her head and tried to think. She had fled to the streets, and fallen asleep. Then she had woken up, paranoid, constantly using her void gaze to see if anyone was coming for her. Yet it tired her out, not in the same way as exercise tired her out, but it got to the point where she could only hold the vision for a minute or so before having to wait. Then she had slept again… and was here.

"Drink up, Dearie; you need your strength…" Granny Rags was pushing a bowl of _something_ towards her. Of course she didn't trust it, but she was _really_ hungry. She took a sip from the bowl and gagged. It was _horrible_. "What's, *cough, cough* what's in… this…" strangely, it seemed to help that strange tiredness using her powers caused. Ignoring the taste, she began to drink heartily. "Good little girl, Dearie, eating your broth without whinging and whining. If you follow me, now, I have a present for you…" Emily looked up perplexed as Granny Rags proceeded to walk towards a door and unlock it, walking out into… a garden? Why was it glowing purple?"  
._.

Straightening out her dress, Emily followed the old woman. The place was lit by purple lanterns, strange fungus growing from cracks in the walls. And there was a shrine. She muttered " _peekaboo_!" to herself and put her hands over her eyes, the world warping as she viewed it through her special eyes. The shrine seemed to glow fiercely, and the thing on it, which looked like a bone with a rune etched into it…was it exuding some sort of aura? She looked at Granny Rags, who gestured encouragingly, so she picked up the rune.

 _"_ _My my… two days outside my suggestions and you find Granny Rags. That is surprising."_

Emily stumbled backwards as the Outsider appeared before her, before shyly replying. "I… I spent most of it asleep."

" _That doesn't surprise me. What you just picked up is a rune. It and the bone charms like it will bolster your powers, and allow you to unlock more."_

Emily's eyes widened. "I can get more powers?"

The Outsider nodded. _"And Granny Rags can help you to do so. But I would advise moving fast. Time is not on your side, and neither are the guards who once protected you."_

He vanished, leaving Emily to Granny's giggling. "He likes you, Dearie. The black eyed one likes you, he branded you, didn't he?"

Emily took a deep breath. _Should I be doing this? No, don't think too much, otherwise you might think about-_

"I. Would like. To find more runes." She said carefully, mentally congratulating herself on being proactive for the first time since…well…huh. Had she ever really…?

"Of course Dearie, Granny knows how to make them, oh yes she does, but Granny needs ingredients if she is to cook."

Emily blanched a little at that, _what does she want?_ "What… ingredients?"

"Bones from the rich and bones from the poor, Dearie, the doctor's uptown mansion and the Bottle Street brewery. Both have a rune there, but both have something else special, oh yes, special, bring both to me and I will make you a lovely new present…"

Emily gulped, but nodded. _I can climb, Corvo taught me to climb, but how do I sneak? How do I steal? If only Thomas was here… wait._

"Excuse me, Mrs, uh, Rags? Did you say _Bottle Street_ brewery?"

"Oh yes, Dearie, full of horrible men, no manners, not like they used to be…" But Emily was no longer listening. Grinning, she ran out of the garden, thinking back to information she had been given only a few weeks ago.

._.

"The thin, tall building on Bottle Street, I told her where I live- oh screw it, there's no way she'd come here!" Thomas sighed flopping onto his makeshift bed. He lived in the top room of the building, which had been evicted after the plague took his father (not something he enjoyed thinking about) his far older brother taking all the rest. He could hear him now, wandering around the room in a drunken stupor. _She'd visit some posh-tot family like the Boyles, or the Pendletons. But wait, they all think she's some kinda witch don't they? Hmph._ Thomas sighed and wandered over to the balcony, remembering the girl picking daisies in the garden. _Yeah right. If Emily's consorting with the Outsider, I'll call my brother the drunken whaler-_

As though on cue, a blue tentacle shot out and gripped the balcony rail, and even as he recoiled, it began to contract and a white blur shot up and elegantly pulled itself over the ledge. It didn't take him long to recognise it. "Emily!?" She looked at him for a moment before rushing at him and enveloping him in a hug. They just stood there for a moment, two children meeting in insane circumstances, before they broke apart and Thomas grabbed Emily by the shoulders. "Emily, what happened? I saw some people on the rooftops before I got outta there, then the announcer's saying you're a witch, and, wait how did you-?"

She giggled nervously and held up her hand, the symbol on it barely visible in the night air. "Well, they're right about that I suppose."

He gaped at it for a moment, before looking at her with eyes wide "Cool! So what can you do? The tentacle thingy?"

She nodded. "And I can see, well, differently. Through walls, and in the dark. I think I can learn more, but I just found out how to do this much."

He let out a breath, and began jumping on the spot, adrenaline pumping hard. "Oh, this is so cool! So what are you doing here?"

Her face turned serious. "Well, I was talking to Granny Rags-"

"The crazy old bat at the bottom of the street? Ha! I knew she was a witch!"

"-And she says that to get more powerful I need to steal some stuff from this rich doctor nearby, and you always said you were great at sneaking, so…"

He held up a finger. "Wait. You want _me_ to help the empress' dishonoured daughter break into a rich guy's house so you can get more superpowers?"

She nodded, eyes hopeful. "Do you not want to do it? I mean-"

"Heck yeah I wanna do it!" He interrupted. "How often does a street rat get to do something this exciting? Are you ready now?"

"I guess."

"Great! Hold on one moment." He grabbed a backpack, walked to the room door, opened it, and yelled downstairs. "OI! ROGER! YOU'RE THE DRUNKEN WHALER!" He slammed the door and turned to her. "Right, let's go. Uh, quickly please?"

 _ **Here the main story beggins. Right now, Emily doesn't want to think long term, and is simply trying to survive and figure out what the heck is going on. Please review with thoughts and ideas, and i will see y'all next week for the next update.**_


	5. Act 1: Chapter 5: Mystic Heists

Mystic heists

Thomas leapt to a balcony, jumped off and landed next to a map just beside the port. He looked around, orienting himself, noting the bridge to a lighthouse on his left. He didn't poke his head beyond the wall to his right, but he knew what that crackling sound meant. A blue grappled to the floor beside him and Emily landed there. He looked at her and frowned. "What are you doing?"

She looked back, affronted. "I'm sneaking?"

He looked at her posture, hands held up crooked in front of her and knees half bent, on her tip toes. He rolled his eyes, and slapped her hands down. "That's not how you sneak outside a pantomime Emily! Look, when we get in there, stay low, stay quiet, and stay behind cover. The stupid guards never seem to see you when you're leaning." He looked up over the wall and sighed. "Okay, they set the wall of light up. Listen, your doctor's house is on Clavering Boulevard, but to get there we'll need to get through this archway up ahead. It's guarded, no big deal, but if we walk through there now we're gonna get fried."

Emily looked up and saw what he meant, electricity sparking between pylons on either side of the aperture. A pair of guards was sat idly nearby it. "How do we get through?"

Thomas' eyes darted around, before alighting on a device with a tank of whale oil in it. He pointed. "There. Get the tank out, and the whole thing shuts down. Those things are heavy when full, I can barely lift them, never mind pull them out, but they're volat-vol…"

She looked at him. "Volatile?"

"Bingo. Anyway, if we find a loose tank nearby, we could probably lob it at it, make both blow up, or maybe wait until it's almost empty to remove it…"

Emily looked to the symbol on her hand, mind whirring. "I think I have a better idea. But how will we distract the guards?"

Thomas gestured under the nearby bridge, where a bunch of children in rags were trying to skim stones at the water's edge. "No problem. The adults round here will try and rob you if you offer them money for a job. The kids though…" He pulled out a coin of 5, grinning wickedly.

._.

A guard leaned against a nearby crate, sighing. _I swear my shifts are getting longer…_

"Hey, Jack!"

He opened his eyes as another guard wandered over. "Hey Geoff."

"So…"

"What?"

"Shall we gather for whiskey and cigars tonight?"

"Well, I-" A glass bottle smashed at his feet. He looked up to see a gaggle of children a few metres away, laughing at him. Even as he watched, they grabbed loose tiles from the floor and began hurling them in his direction. He growled. "Tell ya what, Geoff, whiskey after we teach these gremlins a lesson, eh?"

The two ran after the group, who began to disperse into the streets, not noticing a pair of children slip behind them. Thomas and Emily ran towards the gate and stopped next to the guard post. "Okay." Said Thomas, anxious. "What now?"  
"Hold me."  
"What?"  
Emily looked across at him, her expression urgent and serious. "Grab me, and grab that lamp-post!"

Blinking in confusion, he complied, effectively anchoring her in place. "Now what?"

She frowned in concentration, aimed her hand towards the whale oil tank across the street, and flexed her fingers. The blue tendril snaked quickly through the air, suctioning onto the tank, but instead of letting herself be carried, Emily pulled. The tendril went taut, Thomas gripped her and the post harder, and Emily skidded forward a few inches before her small heels found purchase on the slippery tiles. With a clunk, the tank disconnected from its port, and flew across the distance towards her. She caught it, stumbling against Thomas and almost knocking both of them over, before dropping it with a wince. She looked to the wall of light. It had stopped sparking. She tentatively rolled the fallen tank through the aperture, eliciting no response, before gleefully grabbing the arm of a bewildered Thomas, and leading him through to a building labelled 'Offices of Dr Galvani'.

._.

After entering the fortunately unlocked house, Emily turned to Thomas and motioned him to stay quiet, to which he titled his head, as though to say 'well, duh?' She pressed her hands over her eyes and triggered her void gaze, looking around. They were in a small room just inside the front door, presumably where you took off your shoes. Before her, two guards were in the first hallway, patrolling around a set of display cases, then further away was a circular staircase, and somewhere several storey's above her, she could blurrily see objects pulsing with the Outsider' power. She looked back at Thomas, who was staring at her with mouth opened wide.

"Black eyes!" He whispered. She blinked, _that's what it does?_ But shook her head, it wasn't important. Opening the door just a crack when the guards were looking another way, she quickly slid into the room and beneath the display cases. She turned back to Thomas, whispering "go steal or something!" Before crawling further in. Painstakingly, she made it to the end of the displays (if not the hallway) and waited for the guards to look the other way before grappling to the foot of the staircase, practically sliding across the wooden floor. She looked around, taking in the lush carpets, paintings, warm lighting, and was immersed in nostalgia. _If none of this had happened, I would be living in a place like this…_ She shook her head, she needed to be concentrating, and looked up, just in time to see a maid who had been cleaning a painting begin to turn towards her.

Panicking, Emily did the only thing she could. Aiming her arm upwards, she fired, a grapple extending up the centre of the spiralling staircase and dragging her just up out of sight. She ascended up two floors before finally impacting (somehow painlessly) against the roof, but the tendril vanished as soon as its job was done. Emily looked down (and it was a long way down) and barely let out a squeak before the ground began to come up towards her-

 **Cliiiiiiiifhangeeeer! Oh, je suis evil. Please review-seriously, it's getting lonely over here- and i will see you next week for the next update!**


	6. Act 1: Chapter 6: Mystic Heists part 2

Mystic heists part 2

Stretching her arms out, Emily managed to hook her hands over the top balcony, her legs slamming into the surface and the shock knocking her out of her void gaze. Somewhere below her, a guard called out with "Hey? Did you hear that? I think it was upstairs!"

Grimacing, she pulled herself over the ledge, collapsing on the landing in a daze. She shook her head and looked around, seeing she was next to what looked like a laboratory. Hearing loud (but fortunately unhurried) footsteps on the stairs beneath her, she quietly slipped into the room. The warm lights of the main house gave way to a cool, clinical blue inside the lab. Emily glanced over the table, not understanding the scientific instruments she saw, before focusing on the diary she saw laid open on the table.

 _Day 21:_

 _My research on the rat plague's origins is moving forward steadily. When I pinpoint its origins I will deliver my findings to Anton Sokolov. On a side note, I discovered some potentially heretical artefacts while scouting for my...research material. I have stored them within my secret room for now, and will inform an Overseer when time allows._

Emily frowned in thought. _Secret room…_ She opened her void gaze, and saw that the objects with the feel of the Outsider were inside a wall, behind a bookcase.

She cut the gaze and looked at the bookcase, seeing the scrape marks on the floor nearby, and, on closer inspection, saw that one book was far less dusty than the rest. She tried to pull it out, and with a rumble, the bookcase swung open. Grinning, she ran into the room, immediately looking over its contents. A dissected rat corpse (she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose at how _fresh_ it seemed) another diary, a phial of a blue something (she took that out of curiosity) and beside it, what she was looking for. She scooped up the rune, annoyed at the limited pockets in her dress, and examined the other thing. It was whalebone, curved, with no apparent runes on its surface, but it seemed to vibrate more the closer it was to the rune, or, in fact, to her mark. She shrugged, pocketed it, and turned to leave.

"What's going on here then?" Emily spun around; arm coming up ready to pull her towards the ceiling, window, out of danger- then froze, and scowled. "Thomas! What are you doing?"

Her street-rat friend was bent over in front of her, shaking in fits of silent laughter. "You…you're face! Oh boy…"

Emily practically hissed. "You shouldn't be so loud! They could hear you!"

He shrugged. "Ah, relax. They'll be busy with the rats I let out downstairs. Oh and they may have seen me, so…"

"He went up here! Get him!"

Emily covered her eyes, saw a mass of glowing bodies climbing up the stairs, and practically squealed in exited terror. No longer trying to avoid making a noise (or a mess) she grappled a chair from the corner of the room, bracing and pulling it towards her. Using the leftover momentum, she hurled it through the window with a crash, flinching a little, then grabbed Thomas by the waist and grappled them both out through the new aperture. By the time the guards burst in, the pair was two roofs away.

._.

Panting, Emily deposited them in an alleyway. She sat back against the wall and watched, resisting the urge to giggle as Thomas vomited in the street in front of her.

"Look out! People might think you're a weeper." She noted.

He grimaced, pulling a vial of red something out of his rucksack (clunking from the volume of stolen goods within it) "Good point. How do you cope with that grapply thing? It felt like my insides went Outsider. Hehe, get it?"

She couldn't help but smile, before looking at the vial Thomas was drinking from. "What is that?"

He looked at her questioningly. "You've never had Sokolov's elixir?"

Emily's eyes widened. "Oh that. The rat plague's defence. Mother used to mix it into my food. Apparently it's less effective like that, but I was never really at risk. I thought it looked less... Murky."

Thomas chuckled. "Yup. This is bootleg elixir. The bottle street gang sells it at the distillery. A couple days after the plague started, they rounded up all the proper stuff in the poor areas, and sell a diluted version for coins or favours. None of the kids can afford it, and with their parents dead they've been dying fast. I try and help my mates, but I can barely get away with survival myself."

Emily pulled out the blue phial she took from the secret room and held it up. "What's this then?"

He eyed it carefully. "That's Pierro's remedy. Supposedly it works just as well as Sokolov's, meaning, not that well, but it's not as popular since people prefer the Royal physician to some nobody. You should drink it, you're not in Dunwall Tower anymore.

 _No... I'm not._ Emily kept the thought to herself and took a sip.

"Huh. It helps my powers recharge. Like Granny Rags' broth."

"Ha! Anything Granny feeds you is more likely to give you the plague than prevent it. So where are you going now?"

Emily stood up. "You know that distillery you mentioned?"

"...oh great."

._.

Thomas peeked through the door's keyhole, crept through and looked around, before opening it fully and gesturing Emily through with a sarcastic "my lady". She entered, and Thomas pointed upwards, to where a wall mounted pipe led out over a courtyard. She nodded, grabbed him by the waist, and grappled them both to the vantage point. Landing balanced on the (thankfully wide) pipe, Thomas took a moment to steady himself (there was fortunately nothing left to throw up) and looked around until he spotted the contraption he was looking for, kneeling in front of some sort of launcher device. "Go on ahead! I've wanted to look at this for ages!" He whispered. Emily nodded slowly, a little worried at leaving him behind. Guards at a prestigious doctor's offices would likely be merciful upon meeting an immaculately dressed 10 year old, but this was a gang of criminals. However, a quick glance using her void gaze identified the artefacts she was here for further into the complex, and, steadying her will, she prepared another grapple.

 **Oooh! Emily has a new thingie? What does it do?** **Find out next time on dragon ball Z** **Anyway, please leave a review, and i will see y'all next week!**


	7. Act 1: Chapter 7: Mystic Heists part 3

Mystic heists part 3

Quietly, Emily crept through a door and entered a thin corridor lined with empty bottles. Somehow, she had gotten into the distillery proper without alerting anyone, a feat she could mainly attribute to the numerous overhead pipes and ledges throughout the area. She could tell that the rune was in a room nearby, but unfortunately, it wasn't the room's only occupant.

"The patrols will be going through Bottle Street on Monday, the back alleys on Wednesday, and they'll be searching the distillery on Thursday. You may want to take your men on a field trip, Slackjaw."

Through the wall, her void gaze identified the speaker as a man in black robes and a gold mask. _An Overseer...what's he doing here?_

"Thanks for the info. I know it must be hard to sneak away from your sermons." The other speaker, Slackjaw, responded, a sort of authority in his voice.

"Well, as long as you keep alerting me if you find charms like these, and keep my family safe, I'll be entirely willing to take the risk."

Emily's heart skipped a beat. They were going to take her runes away!

As Slackjaw replied with "Heh, trust me, from what I've heard, these rune things are not worth the effort." Emily frantically looked around for a way to get them out of the room. Fortunately, one found her. "Hey!" Whispered Thomas, creeping up behind her. "You won't believe what I just found!"

She held up a finger to shush him. "Can you cause a distraction for me again? Let some more rats out?"

He grinned. "Oh, I can do better than that." He opened a fist to show some sort of dart with a pale blue liquid in it. Emily recognised that at least. "Whale oil?"

He nodded. "Incendiary dart. It was in that launcher I was fiddling with, meant to booby-trap the entrance. Fortunately..." He pulled a slingshot from a pocket. She looked at it in surprise. It looked far more... Well-built than she'd expected from a street rat. He smiled, looking down at it. "I carved it myself. Climbed to the top of a ship coming in from Serkonos to get the wood for it. It can fire a pebble hard enough to smash a bottle at 20 metres. With this little beauty..." He fit the incendiary dart to the string and grinned at her. "Give me thirty seconds."

He vanished down the corridor. She shook her head as she looked after him. He was just so... Cheeky! And she was sounding like mother!

That train of thought was interrupted by an offhand remark by Slackjaw. "Must be an awkward job. Hasn't Daud started rounding up everything heretic-like recently?"

Emily frowned. _That name..._

"That name..." The Overseer muttered just as the thought passed her mind. "Perhaps I'm too superstitious, but even saying it makes me worry about knives in the dark."

Slackjaw laughed. "Really? Ain't he just some other gang leader?"

"Hah!" The Overseer exclaimed. "Just another... No, Daud is no mere man. If only you knew of the texts in our library, the things he has done... Grit and steel can only take you so far, and he goes further with each new tale. There can only be so many reports of teleporting assassins before it stops being mere fabrications."

Emily's breath hitched. _Teleporting…No... Daud had..._

Suddenly the sound of an explosion rocked the room from the courtyard. With a few words a girl her age should not be hearing, Slackjaw and the Overseer sprinted outside to find the cause of the disturbance, and Emily shook her head, not wanting to waste her opportunity. She entered the room.

It seemed to be some sort of office, with a desk, various posters and news articles pinned to the wall behind it. A contraption with a nozzle was sat in the corner, labelled 'bootleg pourer' and she was tempted to take from that as well, but was soon preoccupied by the objects resting on the desk. Another rune, first and foremost, and on top of it, something creepier. It looked a sort of fabric, wavering despite the lack of any breeze, and bore resemblance to the translucent materials Emily had seen in complex dresses at important parties. Stuffing the rune in some fold of her dress, she picked up the fabric (which was practically bleeding the Outsider's power) and gently blew at it. It didn't respond. She tried to look through it. It made her eyes hurt. Shrugging, she pocketed it.

"What's going on here then?"

Emily sighed and turned around. "Thomas, I told you, stop being so...loud." She saw a bowler hat, a torn up suit, a bottle of whisky, and a rusty looking cleaver. Suffice to say, it wasn't Thomas.

._.

Emily struggled fruitlessly as the man pulled her into a courtyard. Unfortunately, he had grabbed her marked hand, and any grapples she attempted would likely pull him with her, leaving her special powers remarkably useless. As a result, she could do little bit follow meekly as the man called out "Hey Slackjaw! Come look at this!"

The man in charge turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Hey boys! Looks like our favourite little thief has a girlfriend!"

Emily glared at him. "He's not...What have you done with Thomas?"

Slackjaw chuckled. "Put a bullet in his head." -Her jaw dropped- "Is what I'd like to have said, but that little rat keeps getting away from me. Nicking my elixir for his pathetic little buddies. You aren't so quick though, are ya?" She struggled against the grip of the man who'd grabbed her, who gruffly stated "I found 'er in your office Slackjaw."

"Really?" Slackjaw leaned down in front of her. "So what were you doing in there? And who are you?"

"Let me see her!" Yelled a voice from the back of the newly assembled crowd, and the Overseer from earlier shouldered through. Emily took one look at him, realised what he was going to see, and resumed struggling. At a particularly violent jerk, something was pulled out of her pocket, and she grabbed it with her free hand automatically. When the Overseer froze in front of her, she knew he recognised her. A little girl in a white dress with a marked hand and a rune in her grasp. "You..." He snarled.

"Please don't." she mumbled, but he was having none of it.

"Don't what? Reveal your heresy? The only thing I won't do is be merciful, little witch!"

Slackjaw put a hand on his shoulder and led him back a few steps "look, buddy, the girl's like ten, she just nicked that from my office, that doesn't make her a witch..."

Unfortunately, that left Emily alone with a group of curious gang members. "Aww, she's cute!" Chuckled one.

"Blow off, chopper!" Came a response.

"I meant puppy cute!"

"She will watch as the rats pick at our corpses!" Came the Overseers voice from a few metres back.

Surrounded by the chaos, Emily collapsed to a kneeling position, unwilling to meet any of their eyes, instead staring at the rune in her hands. It sung, softly, exuding some of the muffling calmness she had felt in the void.

"Hey, d'you reckon she can dance?"

"Maybe she can sing for us?"

Sing... For some reason, it felt like a good idea. Slowly, she opened her mouth. _"What will we do, with a drunken whaler, what will we do with a drunken whaler..."_

"Holy cow, she's actually doing it! Hey Slackjaw, come look at this!"

The Overseer stared at her in shock. "No, you mustn't let her sing! You mustn't-"

 _"Way, hey, and up she rises, early in the morning..."_

Her voice somehow began to drown out all their muffled complaints, and the strangest thing began to happen. The rune in her hand began to disintegrate, the whalebone dust swirling about her as her mark glowed a bright blue. And people started screaming.

._.

The Overseer panicked, attempting to remember the tune the music boxes played that warded against the Outsiders magic, but somehow he couldn't think, could barely move, the notes from her tune crashing into his head like hammer blows and bringing an undefined terror. He stumbled backwards, covering his ears in a vain attempt to ward off the beautiful, horrible music, and the moment he was far enough away to trust his legs, he ran.

The scene he left behind was a gang of hardy thugs cowering before young Emily Kaldwin.

 **And the name i chose finally makes sense. Emily gets a new power, and it won't be her last. Please leave a review if you liked it, or can think of any other 'little girl' esque abilities, and i will see y'all next time!**


	8. Act 1: Chapter 8: Target: High Overseer

Target: High Overseer

"Early in the morning." Emily finished the song, and looked around. _Well... This is unexpected._

The entirety of the bottle street gang was on their knees in front of her, shaking in their boots. She was sure at least two of them had wet themselves _. Is this a new power?_

Well, if there was one thing her mother had taught her, it was to always act in charge of the situation. She stood up, causing a few involuntary flinches from the gang, and calmly asked "I take it you don't want me to do that again?"

"NO!"

"Please!"

"We'll do anything!"

 _So I've officially terrified a gang into submission. Uh..._ Where in the Isles was Thomas when she needed him?

She took a deep breath. "Slackjaw?" He froze, then got to his feet. "Uh, yes, miss, uh, my ladyship, ah, sorry?"

"You're still in charge. And, um, if you find any more of those runes, you have to bring them to me."

Slackjaw nodded vigorously.

"Oh, and you have to share your elixir with the kids who want it."

He frowned. "But, it's really hard to make OH GOSH IM SORRY!"

Emily sighed. "Then make them work for it! They will, they're desperate." She had a thought. "Oh, and treat them fairly. And report to me. Yes. Do that."

Slackjaw nodded again. She looked around the group again, awkwardly. "So, I'm going to go now... As you were."

She walked off towards the door, pondering what the heck had just happened _. Did I just do empressing?_ She mused. _That went well. I mean I won't be able to sing scarily at my subjects when I'm actually empress, but it's like a safety net. You know, for practice sessions. On gangs. With magic. My life is weird._ She opened the door into Bottle Street and walked through it. Then stopped.

._.

Facing her was over a half dozen Overseers, gold masks glaring at her imposingly and blocking her into the thin hallway. There was silence, except for the door shutting behind her with an audible click.

Emily moved, reaching out and preparing to launch a grapple over the heads of the Overseers, but before she could aim properly, one of them began cranking some sort of music box, and her focus shattered, the notes painful, just as they had been the night of her escape, dropping her to the floor before the human barrier. One of them pointed and called out "Her! She's a servant of the Outsider! I saw her, heard her, using his power! Kill her!" It was the Overseer from before. However, one of the others responded with "If what you say is true, Brendan, she will have to be evaluated by the high Overseer. Fortunately, he is coming now."

Emily panicked. "Please." She whimpered. "You can't listen to him! I don't know what he's talking about!"

"Is that so?" A voice emanated from the back of the Overseers, who parted to let it through. Emily saw its owner, dressed in Overseer robes minus the mask, and knew who it was. "Campbell!"

"That's _high Overseer_ Campbell, to you. I'd hope your mother taught you at least that, Emily Kaldwin."

There was some muttering amongst the Overseers at that.

"Tell me, Overseer Brendan." Campbell directed the question at the one Emily had sung to earlier, never taking his eyes off the empress' daughter. "What heresy did you witness this witch child perform?"

Brendan sucked in a deep breath. "She...sung." There was some snickering amid the Overseers. "No! You had to hear it. It should have been beautiful, yet something about it was horrifying! I was gripped with an irrational fear, a desire to cower before her and beg for it to stop, which was the response of the gang she was bewitching, but my will was strong enough to make me merely retreat."

"And what, pray tell, were you doing in a gang lair?"

Emily couldn't see his face, but she knew Overseer Brendan was grimacing. "I...well I... I was, uh..."

"He was betraying you." Emily cut in, realising how to do some good and ruin an enemy at the same time. "Consorting with criminals and betraying Overseer information. That's the seventh stricture he's breaking, isn't it? Or the third?"

Campbell chuckled. "Impressive knowledge of our code, for a heretic. I suspected as such, and came prepared." He snapped his fingers, and an Overseer brought forwards what looked like a fire poker with its tip coated in whale oil. With the flick of a match, it was set alight. Overseer Brendan recoiled as if struck. "N-no! Not the Heretic's brand! You can't! Not to me! I-" he fainted as two Overseers on either side of him gripped him, and, almost boredly, Campbell applied the brand to his face. Emily watched in horror as the mark was burned into his flesh, then removed and casually handed to a subordinate. Campbell sighed and wiped his hands on his uniform. "Now then, where was I-?"

"Oi! Chopper!" A stone thudded against Campbell's back and he spun round. Down the other side of the alleyway, a gaggle of over a dozen kids had congregated and began hailing the Overseers with rocks and half broken glass objects. Campbell growled. "What in the isles is-"

He was interrupted when a child fell on him from a nearby rooftop.

._.

The kid grabbed Campbell around the neck, gripping tightly and kicking the back of the man. With a start, Emily recognised Thomas.

"Emily!" He called, looking for all intents and purposes like he was trying to rodeo the high Overseer. "Get out! Use your grapple thingy!"

"I can't!" She yelled, the Overseers music still ringing in her ears. Desperately, she ran forwards, but Campbell got a grip on Thomas and pulled him down onto his knee, before throwing him towards Emily, the pair collapsing into a heap. "Stupid damn street rats and their stupid damn witch friends!" Campbell roared, unsheathing his sword. "The regent wants you dead, Kaldwin, but I won't mind adding others to the casualty list. I don't need to fill in paperwork for killing street rats!"

As Campbell turned towards the more numerous kids, Thomas coughed and Emily crawled up to him in concern. "Thomas! I'm so sorry, my powers don't work, I got a new singing thing but the Overseer music just cancels it out!"

Thomas retched a little, managed to utter. "Resolute to your tune, remember?" And passed out.

Emily looked up to see Campbell directing his men against the annoying children ("Why can't we have been given pistols? Just go up and stab them!")

And she began to sing. It was hesitant at first, almost completely drowned out by the Overseers music box, a tune that had started to become popular about the same time as the plague had swept through the city. _"Ring a ring of roses, a pocket full of posies..."_

At first, she couldn't tap the magic, but she began to block out the Overseers tune, focusing only on the little ditty running through her head, and eventually, the power began to bleed through. The first that she noticed of it was the other children, whose eyes went black as they began to chant along with her eerily, walking threateningly towards the Overseers, unwilling, however, to stray too close. The second effect was the panicky actions of the Overseers at the edge of the group, who began to huddle closer to the music box. Campbell whirled round to face her, his eyes widening. "What are you doing? Stop this madness!"

But Emily wasn't stopping. Realising how to silence the player, she dug her hand into Thomas' pocket, pulling out a white, Serkonos wood slingshot. Grabbing a pebble from the ground, she fitted it to the string and fired. Campbell dodged to the side, but he wasn't the intended target. The small chunk of debris flew to the Overseer with the music box, striking his hand. Reflexively, he pulled it away from the crank, hissing. There was a moment where the only thing audible was Emily's singing. Then the screaming started.

 **Get BOSS BATTLED! So to recap, Emily is usually incapacitated by the Overseer's music, but can resist it's effects with her own singing, and manipulte nearby children with it. Next weeks chapter will be the fallout from this, so please review and see y'all!**


	9. Act 1: Aftermaths

Aftermath:

The Lord Regent

Outside Dunwall tower, the Lord Regent graciously gave Lady Boyle his hand as he helped her out of the carriage.

"I trust you will find your quarters satisfactory." Said Hiram Burrows. "I'm afraid they will have to until these trade disputes are settled. Unless you wish to share mine, of course."

Lady Boyle flashed him a coy smile. "I just might take you up on that, Good sir. But I do hope these disputes don't take too long. My sisters and I are arranging a party in a matter of days."

Hiram chuckled. "Oh, what would Dunwall do without the fabulous Boyle parties? Rest assured that the debate will be over soon, especially with the votes of the Pendleton twins-"

"BURROWS!"

Hiram spun round, and recoiled at the sight. "Campbell! What happened to you?"

High Overseer Campbell stumbled towards him, his uniform torn and in shambles, eyes wide and bloodshot, a jagged mark burned into his face. "The Heretic's brand!" He called out, coughing. "The witch girl, she, *cough, cough* I've been cast out! Cast from my own order by one I'm sworn to destroy! You have to help me!"

Hiram's face creased in distaste. "I see. Guards, remove him."

Campbell's face whitened as two burly men in uniform grabbed him and began to haul him off. "What? No! What are you-?"

"You're clearly plagued, and someone cast from their own order is of no use to me. Goodbye."

Campbell roared and struggled against the guards, but got no purchase. "You gutless hagfish! It was the Kaldwin girl, she's coming to destroy everything you've built!"

Hiram paused for almost a second, before taking Lady Boyle's hand and walking away.

The Dishonoured protector

In a dingy basement, Corvo peeked through a keyhole. He saw the shrine, glowing purple, and illuminating the trio of shrunken looking men praying before it. He turned to whisper "three. Looking away."

Crouched beside him, Billie Lurk replied with "I know. Dark vision remember?" Corvo nodded and sighed, the fog temporarily clouding his vision beneath the whaling mask. Quietly, he pulled the door open, then lunged in, going for the chokehold on the rightmost Outsider devotee. The others immediately noticed and turned to him, screaming, but Billie blinked behind the left one and stabbed a blade into its right shoulder. That one promptly turned to charge at her. The centre one went for Corvo, who used his victim as a human shield until he fell unconscious, before throwing him aside and charging the remaining devotee. He grabbed a flailing limb, broke it at the elbow, and then clapped an open palm on either side of his head, delivering a shock into unconsciousness.

He looked around, and, seeing no other threats, turned to Billie, who was staring at him with her head cocked. "You don't kill. Saving that dagger for someone?"

Corvo flipped the royal guard's blade (which he had apparently been unwilling to relinquish after The Event, despite being unconscious) and held up two fingers. "Burrows." He said, wiggling one, then for the other "Daud."

Lurk chuckled. "You're not the only one in our order planning to betray the old man. But you have to be loyal to him before you betray him..."

She blinked past him to the shrine, picking up the rune there. "Or you won't get superpowers!"

Corvo snorted and lifted the heart, which beat faster, picking up a bone charm somewhere east of here, and helpfully spoke up with _'she wants to overthrow him as a matter of honour. She would be sad to see him go..._

Corvo shrugged, saved the new information for later, and prepared to pocket the heart, but suddenly it began to pulse at a fervent pace. _'She brought the corrupt priest down through song and fire! Her innocence remains yet!_

Corvo looked down at the thing in surprise, and Billie raised an eyebrow at him. "Something wrong?"

He shook his head and prepared to move out. With complete certainty, he knew who exactly that last comment had meant.

The void singer

Thomas raised an eyebrow. "So after they all started cowering, you asked them if the high Overseer had broken any strictures."

Emily nodded. "They said he had a secret room built specifically for, um, breaking the sixth."

"And then you took the brand and banished him from his own order!" Thomas laughed, hard, which turned into a hacking cough halfway through.

Granny Rags thwacked him on the elbow with a ladle. "Little boy should stop hurting himself, or Granny will have to take far longer to help him…"

Emily chuckled nervously. The blind old witch hadn't been her first choice to help fix up Thomas' back, but, she had been the only one who understood what a tissue was. She grabbed something from the side table and handed it to Thomas. His Slingshot. "Here. This thing saved my life, you know."

Thomas smiled and waved her off. "You keep it. I reckon you'll be needing it soon enough, and besides, it goes with your whole 'pale white' thing."

Emily smiled in thanks.

"Oh dearie? Your present is ready…" Emily's eyes widened and she gave Thomas' hand a squeeze before chasing after Granny.

The old woman took her into a room with a balcony overlooking the street and muttered. "Close your eyes dearie… you have to close your eyes, or Granny won't give you it, that's the rule…"

Gulping, Emily complied, and felt something rest upon her head. She opened her eyes, turning to a cracked mirror in the corner, wondering what disgusting thing the witch had... OH. It was a tiara. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed the shape when she had been getting the artefacts. It curved around her head, a circlet of whalebone, strange symbols pulsing on it. She reached up to touch it, and gasped. The symbol on her hand was… gone? Almost worriedly she placed that hand onto the circlet, and when she did so, it blazed back into visibility as something fell down over her face. The fabric she had found earlier, acting like a veil. She could see through it now with perfect clarity, perhaps better than without, and her face in the mirror seemed…blurred. Behind her, Granny Rags was cackling. "No-one will see your mark without the veil, but with the veil on, no-one will recognise the young dearie at all, oh no. You will become a ghost, a phantom spirit roaming the streets. Wear it, and- oooh, it looks like you have a gentleman caller."

Emily frowned and was about to ask what she meant, when a voice emanated from outside the house, coming up from beneath the balcony. "Emily Kaldwin! Are you in there? I promise I don't mean to hurt you!"

Granny cackled some more. "Oh, that one's nice, dearie. You should go speak to him, he will help you, Granny knows such things…"

Emily nodded and moved towards the balcony, but paused and turned back. "Make sure Thomas is okay, please? Don't, like, cook his bones or anything." The giggle Emily got in return wasn't exactly reassuring, but she shrugged it off, aiming a grapple out into the street.

._.

"Miss Kaldwin? I promise I'm unarmed!"

"Who are you, and why are you looking for Emily?" Slowly, Samuel turned around to see a young girl in an immaculate white dress, a bone tiara on her head and a veil covering her face. A part of his mind said he should logically know exactly who this girl was, but another part firmly stated that he _couldn't_ know who she was, he couldn't see her face. "My name is Samuel, missy. I work for some people who would like very much to meet her."

The girl tilted her head. "The last person who wanted to meet her was the high Overseer. The one before that was the royal spymaster. You'll understand that she doesn't have much trust for people in power."

Samuel nodded considerately. "I understand that. But while those two wanted the young empress dead and gone, the people I work for want her back on the throne. The royal spymaster has instated himself as lord regent, by the way."

The girl paused for a moment. "She wants to know why she should trust you."

Samuel smiled wryly. "Trust is something that needs to be earned, and built over time. I hope that I can persuade her to trust me eventually, but until then? I'm unarmed, and I hear she is quite adept at escapes. Feel free to weigh the risks, but the way I see it, this is the best way for her to get what she wants."

"And what do you think she wants, Mr Samuel?" The girl asked.

"What we all want." Samuel responded easily. "A chance to stop surviving, and live."

There was a long pause. Then the girl reached up a hand, and the Outsider's symbol appeared upon it as she lifted the veil, the wavering fabric seeming to melt into the tiara.

"Alright. Let's meet your employers." Said Emily Kaldwin.

 **And with that, the first act is completed! Please review, fave and follow to persuade me to keep going, and get HYPED for dishonoured two. Now then, where is this innocent little girl going ne-**

 **...oh. Oh dear.**


	10. Act 2: Chapter 9: The Hounds in the pits

The hounds in the pits.

Pierro finished calibrating his spyglass and admired it at arm's length. It was hardly a new invention, but it was his first attempt at building one himself. In experiment, he put it to his eye and aimed it out into the river from his balcony, impressed with the range and accuracy of –wait…

Activating his second level of zoom (a feature of his own design) He zeroed in on the boat, identifying the _two_ figures there… He closed the spyglass with a snap and almost _jogged_ to go and get Admiral Havelock.

._.

Gently and with an ease brought about by years of practice, Samuel steered the boat slowly towards the dock at the Hound Pits, the afternoon sun easily illuminating all the obstacles clogging the river. He turned to Emily, who was surveying the area with eyes tinted black. "Now listen, missy, uh, my lady, the people you're about to meet are expecting to assume control of things like your education and food, not that you _have_ to accept their help, of course."

Emily nodded absentmindedly, her eyes seemingly fixated on the river's edge nearby. "And another thing, they also don't believe the high Overseer's messages about-"

Suddenly, Emily vanished in a blur, before reappearing on the boat, tucking some sort of rune in her pocket. "-about that."

She smiled, looking down at her apparently unblemished hand. "Don't worry, I can keep it secret."

Samuel coughed. "That wasn't really what I, uh, sure."

With that, he steered the boat into a perfect dock.

Emily looked, not so much in surprise but in curiosity, at the stocky man with a collection of scars who approached the boat. "Lady Kaldwin. Sam. I am Admiral Havelock. It is so good that you are safe, we worried what had happened to you in those back streets."

Emily suppressed a giggle, knowing that little on Bottle Street would dare to hurt her, and replied in her poshest voice, "Not every street rat is malicious, Admiral, but I'm glad to be somewhere… more comfy." She felt a hint of naughtiness enter her voice. "I haven't bathed in _days!"_

Havelock's laugh seemed forced compared to the light chuckles from Samuel behind her. "Well, I'm sure that the maids can tend to that. One in particular is quite anxious to meet you, but you really should prioritise getting to know some of my… let's call them conspirators."

Emily wasn't sure _why_ she should wait to meet the maids; they would be looking after her, so she'd probably see them the most. She shrugged and followed Havelock up the stairs towards the entrance of the dingy looking pub, wondering what sorts of people he would have-

"Interesting!" Emily turned to see a small, bespectacled man approaching her from a side building that looked like a workshop.

Havelock smiled slightly. "Ah, Pierro! M'lady, this is Pierro Japlin, he is our technician and…Pierro?"  
The inventor stared down at Emily piercingly. "How on earth did you get that?"

Emily blinked. _Does he know what my tiara is? Is that new rune sticking out?_ "I, uh-"

Pierro's hand darted out towards her, she flinched away, but not before he grabbed her- huh?

Holding up Thomas' slingshot to the light, Pierro closely inspected it. "Serkonos Palewood… Interesting choice, malleable, but perhaps that would…and brilliantly carved, the contours are…"

Havelock coughed pointedly. "Pierro?"  
The technician froze for a moment before turning back to her, his eyes still flicking to the slingshot. "Right, yes. Greetings, Empress, we are, uh, honoured to have you here. Of course. Uh, would you mind if I kept this? My resources are currently limited, but I'm sure I can make some basic improvements to the design. Of course, if it belongs to the empress, I'll have to maintain the elegance of the design, I'm no Sokolov but I do still have an eye for aesthetics."

Emily nodded mutely, and Havelock sighed beside her. "You'll forgive Pierro, Miss Kaldwin, he gets like this sometimes. But we're lucky to have him, if it weren't for his inventions, then we'd have been surprised by five patrols by now."

"I don't mind." She said, as Pierro vanished into his workshop and Havelock beckoned her to the main building. In truth, she found the man's quirkiness kind of funny. The pair she saw inside the bar… Not so much.

._.

"I hardly like them, but they are my brothers dammit!"

"Brothers or no, we aren't exactly going to let them liv- Ah, Admiral! And… Well then."

Emily walked into the bar and was met by the sight of two men, one thin but tall and holding a flask, the other decked out in Overseer garb. "Miss Kaldwin, allow me to introduce my other friends." Havelock gestured to the rooms occupants. "This is the younger Pendleton brother, Treavor." The man offered a stiff bow, before reaching for a stiff drink. "And this is Overseer Martin."

That man walked forwards for a handshake with Emily. "You must be Emily Kaldwin." He said. "My condolences about your mother, but my thanks for dealing with that high Overseer. I don't know how you managed to brand him an outcast, but he had it in for me for ages. I hope you didn't use magic on him? Because you know I'd have to kill you."

Emily let out a worried smile, making Martin laugh and clap her on her shoulder before wandering over to the bar.

"I'm afraid that all this 'magic' business is causing us serious problems." Havelock cut in. "The lord regent has a lot of the men in power under his control, including the (probably late) high Overseer. It was Campbell spreading the message that you were a witch, and as long as that is popular opinion, there is no reason announcing your safety to the public. I imagine that Hiram Burrows will try and get another puppet voted into the position, and continue the propaganda while he tries to find you."

Emily frowned. "How do we stop that?"

"From the bar, Martin sent her a cheery wave. "With me!"

"Overseer Martin is quite high up in the Abbey of the Everyman." Havelock explained. "And as you can see, he is quite the charmer."

Emily's eyes widened in understanding. "You think you can get him to be high Overseer? Then he can say I'm not a witch!"

"Not quite." Havelock sighed. "The high Overseer is voted in by the parliament, which consists of prominent families such as the Boyles, The Burrows', many others, and the Pendletons. All three of the Pendletons. Now if…something were to happen to the older two, then Treavor here would assume their votes in parliament and it would be a trifle to get Martin promoted."

Emily looked at him curiously. "Would you have to disgrace them? Like I did to Campbell?"

The room seemed to come to an awkward stop. "…Of course. That." Havelock said eventually, breaking the silence. "But suitable…disgracers have been hard to find, and the vote is tomorrow night." As the room started up again, Havelock looked at Emily, deep in thought, and seemed to decide that the conversation was over. "There's nothing you can do about it, so forget about it, okay? I'll get one of the maids to show you your new room."

._.

"Ooh!" Emily looked at the room in wonder. It wasn't as big as her old one, of course, but it was at the _top_ of the tower this time, and she had to go over a rooftop bridge to get there! Exploring this place was going to be fun. The maid who had taken her there smiled. "It's facilities are limited, the only bath's back in the main complex, but it's the most secure room here, and the best decorated." She lowered her voice. "I think the Admiral's jealous."

Emily giggled. "Thank you very much, uh, Callista, was it?"

Callista nodded. "Yes. If you ever need anything, let me know, and honestly, I should be the one thanking you."

"Really? Why?"

Callista blushed. "Well, Martin wasn't the only one Campbell had a problem with. My uncle, Geoff Curnow, was honestly worried for his life. He'd been in a bunch of 'accidents', and, well…He's the only family I have left." She sniffed a little and wiped her face with her sleeve.

Cautiously, Emily said. "You don't need to thank me for saving your uncle. It's an empress's job to help her people, right?"

Callista looked up, eyes glistening slightly, and seemed to be about to say something, but instead just shook her head slightly, curtsied, and left with a "My lady."

Turning back to her room, Emily barely caught what sounded like "bless your soul, little Kaldwin." Before going to her window and looking out over the river beyond.

 **Alright listen,** ** _I'm_** **away from wifi for a week, meaning i can write, but not upload. This shouldn't affect much, 'cept you get this early and the next late. Anyway, See y'all!**


	11. Act 2: Chapter 10: Behind the backs

Behind the backs

Stood just past his boat, leaning against the wall, Samuel savoured his cigarette as he looked out over the river. It was six o'clock, and the sun was about to begin its descent down the horizon. In the soft light, it was easy to see the Wrenhaven as a peaceful, clean river. Helped you ignore that feeling in your head that that lump floating down the current looked an awful lot like a-

"What're you thinking about?" Jumping only slightly, Samuel turned towards the voice, seeing Emily perched on the wall above him. How she'd got there without him hearing… well, he did know, really.

"Just reflecting, Miss Kaldwin." He replied, looking back at the river. "Thinking about what we've done to get this far. What we've got to do to get further."

"Like killing the Pendletons?"

Samuel cringed slightly, looking up into Emily's not-so innocent eyes. "I know what they meant. My mother's bodyguard, Corvo, often had to be the one to execute dangerous criminals. He'd say things like 'go to your room now, I've got to _deal with_ someone'. Or, 'I've got to remove someone from service'."

Samuel took another pull from his cigarette. He wasn't getting paid to console youngsters. "I suppose he was being responsible, he didn't want young ears hearing about-"

"It wasn't the death." Emily said, quietly, but still effectively silencing the boatman. "I'd heard about murderers, rapists, people the government had to clean up after. It was that my mother had _ordered_ him to kill someone. My mother, the one who kissed me before bed each night, had decided that executing someone was the _right thing to do_." Her voice hitched. "And that, when I'm empress, I might have to-"

Samuel sighed, flicked his cigarette into the river, and turned fully to her, reaching up and patting her foot. "I guess you should be glad it's not you making the decision. The admiral and his friends have thought about this, it would cost too much to buy them off, take too long to find blackmail evidence, or-"

"I don't want to do what's easy! I want to do what's right!"  
Emily almost shouted. She looked round, furtively, before almost whispering "I need your help. Do you know where the twins could be?"

Samuel chuckled. "Of course. They'll be preparing for a night at the golden cat near Bottle- wait, don't tell me you're-"

"I have friends on Bottle Street!" Emily interrupted, her eyes glinting with excitement. "If I could kidnap them, make people think they were dead, even for just a night or two, then Treavor would get their votes and-"

"Hold up a moment!" Samuel held up a hand. "Firstly, _you_ shouldn't go within a mile of Golden Cat, second, you want me to go against the admiral's orders and smuggle you, the VIP, across the city at night, and third, _you should not go within a mile of Golden Cat!"_

"But I have to!" She whispered. "Havelock isn't going to find an assassin and get them to kill someone within 24 hours, and I have powers designed to do this! And what's wrong with Golden Cat?"

"It's a b-" Samuel caught himself and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, I can't do this unless the admiral gives me the go-ahead, and he won't. Now look, don't-"

Emily pouted. It was a pout she had developed perfectly to manipulate elders, to the point where it was twice as potent as her singing. Samuel lasted eight seconds.

._.

Underneath the overhang on Bottle Street, a bunch of kids were playing. They had found something that could almost be considered spherical, and were kicking it around with little regard for their (sometimes bare) feet. One overexcited child kicked it a little too hard, and they let out a collective groan as it flew towards the river-

Only to be gripped by a blue tendril and pulled to their left, into the hands of a girl in white.

"Do any of you know where Thomas is?" Emily asked, rolling the ball over towards them.

"Over here your ladyship! Hey, catch!" Emily spun around, catching the thrown object instinctively. Then it squeaked.

Emily let out a squeal and kicked it away, almost stumbling into the Wrenhaven, before launching a tendril to land her back on dry land. Throughout the entirety of the spectacle, Thomas stood there, in stitches. Figuratively, and literally. Emily scowled at him. "The first time you see me out of granny rags' 'care' and you throw a rat at me? What in the void, Thomas?"  
"Why… you in the void… m'lady." He said sarcastically, between gasps for breath.

Emily growled and flicked a finger in his direction dismissively. Almost at once, she felt a tug at her magical stamina and a rune in her pocket disintegrated. Almost comically, Thomas' shadow seemed to detach from his body, and swipe a leg across Thomas' feet, knocking him to the floor and pinning him there. Emily skipped up to him, kneeling down, and in a singsong voice "Why thank you for your politeness. And kneeling! What a loyal subject." She flicked the finger again and Thomas' shadow reattached to his body and got up. He didn't seem annoyed at all. "That was awesome! When did you get that power?"

Emily shrugged. "Just now. I just sort of… get them when I need them, if I get enough runes."

Thomas grinned. "For me? I'm flattered." He broke into a cough before grimacing at her, pulling some elixir from his pocket. "Freaking stinky dead people in the freaking lake, anyway, why are you here? Didn't you sod off with some gentleman caller? Cos when Granny rags said it, it sounded really weird."

Emily blushed little. "I…well I need you."

A chorus of wolf whistles grew from the crowd behind them and Emily huffed. "Not like that. I need you to help me get into the Golden Cat."

The wolf whistles intensified and Thomas nearly choked on his elixir. Wordlessly, he yanked her in the opposite direction.

 **This one was fun, and I have a serious problem with rat jokes. my autre fic.**

 **anyway, whatever you do,** ** _You must not_** **review this chapter. under any circumstances. At all. See y'all!**


	12. Act 2: Chapter 11: Inappropriate places

Inappropriate places

Emily raised her hands in astonishment. "What is everyone's problem with me and Golden Cat!"

Slackjaw clenched his fingers in exasperation. "It's a, well,"

"Don't you dare." Thomas muttered from beside him, before more loudly, "We're coming to you so she doesn't _have_ to go in Golden Cat. You've made people vanish quietly before. We want you to get the Pendletons away from parliament; you don't even have to hold them for longer than a day!"

Slackjaw sighed. "Look, the Golden Cat _knows_ there's a bunch of low-lives in the nearby alley's who'd just _love_ to break in and…" Thomas looked at the gang leader pointedly. "Do…things-anyway, we have the key to a house right next to the Cat, heck, we know about a locked VIP entrance, but my men aren't going to get in without inside help."

Emily rolled her eyes. "So you want the singing scary empress to get you in, right?"

"NO!" The two guys looked at her in disbelief, before Thomas got up. " _I'll_ do it." Slackjaw looked equal parts glad and worried that Emily would disagree. "There's an employee only entrance at the bottom of a side staircase. The key should be on Prudence. Think you can get it?"

Thomas cricked his fingers. "I can try." He was out the door before either of them could complain. Emily sighed. "So… what do we do now? Wait and worry?"

Slackjaw sighed. "More me than you. I just wonder whether I should try and get Rosie out or not."

Emily looked up at him. "Rosie?"

Slackjaw nodded, his eyes unfocused. "Yeah. My daughter. She… Works there, but it's a _very_ unenviable job, even for a bottle street gal in the middle of the plague. Then again, if I get her out of there, what? She runs a gang with me? Lives in a distillery? Any chance that when I'm out my men'll… I mean it's no better than… well at least she gets paid pittance for it there. I shouldn't even be tell…ing… oh come on." Emily was gone.

._.

Thomas leapt onto a balcony overlooking the street in front of the Cat, ducking into the building when the guard began to look his way. He heard a strange humming from the room above, and clambered up the conveniently collapsed floor to see the source. And stopped dead. Before him, Emily was stood in front of a scary looking shrine, seemingly talking into thin air. Thomas grimaced. He knew what she was seeing, and he was dying to hear what it had to say. _You will be dying._ Insisted a nagging voice in his head, but he screwed up his eyes for a moment and concentrated. Squinting, he saw a blurry outlined figure in a suit saying something like _"I wouldn't worry about your side objective, young one. Your two wants here are intertwined. I wonder whether you will manage to help everyone out alive… and if they stay that way."_ The figure of the Outsider then deliberately turned and _winked_ at Thomas, before vanishing.

._.

Emily stood there for a moment, puzzling out the deity's message as she scooped up the rune, before hearing a sharp, pained intake of breath from behind her. She spun round to see Thomas there, grimacing and gripping his stomach. "Thomas? What're you-"

"What am I?" Thomas almost yelled. "I thought I said I would take care of it!"

Emily huffed. "There was something else that needed doing. Besides, I wanted to see Golden Cat."

"You are not seeing Golden Cat!"

"Will someone please tell me what's wrong with Golden Cat!" Thomas span to the side and rammed a bare fist into a wall, punching through a layer of the plaster. Emily stumbled back a step at the show of surprising aggression and strength. "Fine. You wanna know why?" He grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the room and onto the balcony. He pointed down at the street. Emily looked as what looked like a nobleman walked down the street towards the Cat. He was met at the entrance by a woman wearing clearly insufficient clothing. They conversed for a moment, the woman making odd movements, before he reached towards her-

Emily let out an "Eep!" As Thomas helpfully covered her eyes. She turned towards him, eyes blazing. "This…this is -"

"Brothel? Yup."

Emily was at a loss for words. "This is… this is wrong, why is it legal? Why are noble people going there?"

Thomas had a small wry smile. "Apparently, their wives are… boring, I suppose?"

"That's… I'm making this illegal."

"Then what?" Emily looked at Thomas in surprise. "Suppose you do close this place when you're empress. All those girls in there get thrown out into the street, where they get raped or get employed by a downtown, illegal brothel with _far_ worse living conditions."

Emily clenched her fists, a strangled noise coming from her throat. "Why…why must it be so complicated? Why can't everyone be loyal, and kind, and-"

"Because most people _aren't good people!"_ Thomas shook her by the shoulders for emphasis. "People like you, and your mother, and maybe me, are far outnumbered by the Campbells and Burrows'!"

Emily wrenched her arm away and leant against the wall, covering her eyes with her arms. She stayed there for a good few seconds. Then she breathed in, and turned back to Thomas. Her eyes were alight with determination. "Alright. You go in there, find whoever's in charge and see if they have a master key. They'll probably be in their room. Pickpocket it, and use it to let in Slackjaw's boys. I will scout out the layout of the place and try to identify the guard patrols and find the Pendletons and the VIP entrance. I find you with my void gaze, we meet, we get the Pendletons out. Oh, and look through the lodgers to see if there's a girl called Rosie."

Thomas nodded, grinning.

"Oh, and when I'm empress I'm enforcing a law that guarantees a certain standard of living to girls in brothels."

"…You thought that up while I thought you were crying, didn't you?"

"Uh huh. Come on then, hop to it!"

 **Sorry! I skipped a week didn't I? Well, that's because I spent my midweek brute-force learning french paragraphs and my weekend traipsing through the peak district. Jeez, life, let a nerd do his thing... anyway, here's some noble/streetrat BANTER. I hope you enjoyed, and next week will be on time. I promise.** ** _You've said that before-_** **Shut it!**


	13. Act 2:Chapter 12: Target: The Pendletons

Target: The Pendleton twins.

" _Why of course I'm 'available' sir. Say, would you like me to sing for you?_ " Emily snickered to herself as she left the smoking room and its cowering occupant. He had seemed almost obnoxious when she had last seen him in court, but Lord Shaw was pretty much a mewling puppy when she made use of her talen- eww, that sounded weird. _Note to self._ Emily thought as she moved across the artistic glass lampshades towards the room believed to hold her target. _As tempting as it may be, no terrifying nobles with magic when empress._

._.

Thomas peered through the keyhole, and was greeted by the unenviable sight of Madam Prudence's rear end. The old hag was bent over her desk, peering at and writing in what was probably her ledger. Thomas slowly opened the door (thankfully better oiled than most in this place) and crept into the room. A key glinted on her belt. Moving closer to the unenviable sight, Thomas padded towards her and, delicately, hooked the key off of her belt. He smiled to himself, taking a peek over Prudence's shoulder to check where the Pendletons were. _Wow._ He thought to himself, creeping away. _It looks like nothing is gonna go wrong._

._.

 _Everything is going to go wrong._ Emily growled to herself softly as she watched Custis nod stiffly at her, and walk out of the Gold Room. She sighed and flopped onto the luxurious bed, glancing at the girl curled up in a ball beside her. "You just saw me sing your client into submission. He's about to waltz down to the V.I.P exit to get picked up by some lovely gentlemen from the street. Waltz. That's a funny word." The girl remained silent, shaking slightly. "Sorry about, you know, terrifying you and everything. That can't be good for you. Then again, I doubt that you need much clear thought in your line of work. Am I being whimsical? I'm being whimsical aren't I?"

The girl nodded slightly, before burying her head in her hands and continuing rocking. "You see, anything can go wrong. He could get over his fear for me and call the guards. Someone could walk in on us at any moment. My best kidnapping tactic is scaring people into kidnapping themselves, isn't that weird?" The girl squeaked a little. "'Course, you're going to tell them about me, but you can't _identify_ me, per se. just tell them I'm 'the spirit of the streets', or 'the void singer' or something equally spooky, kay?"

Another small nod. There was a pause. "Hey, do you know where I could find a girl called-"

"Rosie's with the other one!" Emily spun round to see Thomas climb over the balcony into the room. "She's in the…what are you doing to that poor girl?"

"Rumour mongering." Emily hopped off the bed. "So, that's convenient. Where are they?"  
Thomas grimaced. "In the bath room. You know, the one that you can only access from the main room and has no secret exits. Unless you can turn into a fish…"  
"I honestly wouldn't put it past me." Emily shrugged.

._.

They crept out onto the lampshades over the main room, where the entrance to the 'steam room' was plainly visible. And guarded. Thomas sighed and raised his arms, and Emily, smiling, grabbed hold of him and grappled them past the guardsmen. (Who were nonetheless preoccupied by two girls doing…something?)

They crept deeper into the chamber, Thomas strangely not gagging after the warp-like movement. Emily ducked her head around the corner. "He's across the room in a side chamber, with Rosie." She frowned. "He has a gun."

Thomas frowned, whispering back. "So? Scare him."

Emily sighed. "I don't...Look, what scares you most?"

"Rats." Thomas' answer was immediate.

"What would you do if a dog sized rat attacked you?"

"Run. The frick. Away."

"And if you had a gun?"

Realisation dawned on Thomas' face. "You think he'll panic shoot you?"

Emily nodded, looking into the off-chamber, where the last Pendleton was absently fingering the firearm while conversing with Rosie. "I don't suppose you could…"  
Thomas rolled his eyes. "There's a person attached to this distraction you know. I'm on it."

He darted out to the wall of the main room. She watched him enter a chamber just beside Morgan's as she crept close to the door. All she needed to do was pop her head out, grapple the gun, and start singing. Actually, come to think of it, she didn't need Thomas to-

There was a squealing sound and a hiss from the room Thomas was stood in. Emily blanched, seeing the pipes in the room buckle. She leapt from behind cover, screaming "Get out!" at the pair, who were panicking, but not actually _doing_ anything, so grimacing, Emily launched a tendril at Rosie and yanked, the magical force behind the tendril pulling the girl out of the way, but the lighter Emily was hurled towards the doorway. She jerked backwards but Morgan, snarling, grabbed her arm, pulling _her_ back towards _him_ in a vain attempt to push _him_ past _her_. Seeing steam hiss out of smaller cracks in the pipes, Emily flicked her finger desperately at Morgan, his own shadow detaching and forcefully tripping him, causing him to release her and fall backwards into the room-

And the pipes fully burst.

._.

Jack of the city watch dug his partner in the ribs and pointed at the two girls kissing in the centre of the room.

"Hey, Geoff, take a look! I told you that there were perks to being in Morgan's personal guard, eh?"

Geoff blinked. "Oh, yeah. Girls. Very, you know, they have nice…faces?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "What is it with you? Every time we come here… wait… are you…"

Geoff gulped.

"-Actually afraid of girls?"

And almost sighed in relief. "Yes, that, definitely, I'm, yeah, terrified."

"Dude, you're almost thirty! And they're wh-"

There was a loud noise from the steam room they were guarding, and Geoff was almost immediately running down there, with a call of "Hey, look! Literally _anything_ else! Let's pay attention to it!"

._.

Grimacing, Thomas grabbed Morgan by the legs, scalding water spraying him, and pulled the man out from the room. Rosie was stood there anxiously as Emily frantically gave Morgan a once over; he was breathing (barely) which was good, but he wasn't moving anywhere anytime soon, which was bad, and his face…that was worse.

"Hey! What's going on down there?"

"Yeah! What he said!"

Thomas positively growled, yanking off his drenched shirt and leaving him in just a set of bandages, presumably from Granny Rags. "Emily, can you get Morgan out of here?"

Emily nodded. "I can probably manage four with him tagging along before I need a break, which should get me to the roof-"

"Good. Do it. I'll take Rosie."

Emily blinked. "Pardon? How?"

Thomas sighed, running over to Rosie and wrapping one arm around her. "I'll be fine. Just go. Now."

Emily shook her head. "No! I'm not leaving you in here! Maybe I can-"

Two guards appeared at the chamber entrance. "Fine then!" Thomas bit out, tightening his grip on Rosie, who was too confused to complain. And then he blurred. Emily watched in fascination as he emanated a sickly green glow, then seemed to leap upwards to the ceiling, land upside down, and dash at an abnormal pace above the heads of the dumbfounded guards before dropping to the ground behind them. "I told you!" He yelled back at her, his voice pained, as a sickly _something_ began to taint his bandages. "I'll be fine!" Emily didn't need telling twice. She grabbed Morgan by the collar, and launched a grapple over the guards.

 **Here, have a long one! Compensation for my inactivity on criminal siblings. Also, ooooh, what did i do to Thomas? You should probably have an idea by now. All will be explained next week. Until then, see y'all!**


	14. Act 2: Aftermaths

Aftermath:

The bottle street boss

"I'm serious, boss, this was a bad idea." Slackjaw sighed and turned to another one of his lackeys. "I sent you on recon, Jimmy. So report."

"It's all gone to sh-"

"A more specific report, dumbass."

"Right. The _Golden cat_ has all gone to-"

"Jimmy do you want your elixir rations or not?"  
"Alright, fine. Half the watchmen in the area are running over there, the sewers are overflowing within half a mile of the place, and two guards are saying they saw two kids zipping about the place. I mean, _zipping._ Are you sure we should be associating with that… witch?"

The door slammed open. "Boss! We got one of them! He, like, came on his own!" Custis Pendleton skittered into the room, eyes wide and nervous as he stuttered "I have to stay here. She told me to come with the gang members. Can you keep me away from her? Please?"

Slackjaw wryly glanced at Jimmy. "Would you rather we _don't_ work with her?"

There was a skittering sound from the roof, then a crash, as Morgan Pendleton was dropped into the room, the groan indicating he was alive. Beside him, a figure in a white dress flashed to the floor for a split second with a girl in its arms. It turned to Slackjaw, nodded its head, and vanished upwards, dropping the confused looking girl behind.

"Rosie…" Slackjaw stammered, running forwards to embrace his daughter. Neither of them noticed the rest of the gang (and the other Pendleton) stare at Morgan's burned and peeling face.

The street urchin

Emily landed on the balcony with a thump, yelling "Granny! What did you do?" She set Thomas down on the floor, working on removing the bandages from his stomach, despite his mumbled protests. "No, don't- oh great." Thomas sighed as Emily looked down at his chest. There was a massive bruise coloured scar along him, dark pus oozing around it. She wasn't a doctor, but she was quite sure a knee to the stomach shouldn't do _that_. She looked around for replacement bandages, but Thomas waved her off, drawing a blue vial of Pierro's remedy from a pocket and swigging from it. The corruption about his wound receded, drawing back into him…mostly.

"Thomas, I…" Emily didn't know what to say, until she heard a cackling from the corner of the room, and spun on its source. "YOU! What did I say! I said don't cook his bones or anything! OR ANYTHING! _What did you do to him?"_

"Why, I made the little one useful to you, Dearie! He can do far more for you now…" Granny fell into another fit of giggles.

Emily turned back to Thomas, who grimaced. "I don't know what that old bat did to me, but I can…well… _see_ , like you can see, and go fast along walls and things. I'm generally stronger and fitter too. Problem is, you have your own magicky stamina for it. Me, it takes it from, well, here." He gestured to his chest. "I can get it back with the elixirs, but if I use it too much at once, it's…"

"Irretreivable." Emily muttered quietly.

Thomas chuckled. "You and your fancy words. Plus I'm pretty sure I have the rat plague now."

Emily rounded on Granny again. "How. Do I. _Fix him."_

"Oh his corruption will go when the plague does dearie, if that ever ends. Until then, you have a minion who can follow you through the void."

Emily turned away, grabbed Thomas by the shoulder and hefted him up. "He's not my minion." She growled. "He's my friend." A moment later, she was gone.

The Dishonoured protector

Corvo slipped forwards and wrapped his arms around one of the workers, silently choking him out. The room clear, he gestured, and Daud blinked through, eyes glowing as he moved towards the valve. "Go to the entrance." Daud commanded in his gravelly voice. "Wait there." And Corvo obeyed. It was perhaps the strangest dynamic he had ever known: Him working for Daud despite a determination to kill him at some point. He didn't know _why_ they were at the Rothwild slaughterhouse, sabotaging it, but the amount of charms Daud had a knack for finding, if anything, convinced him that they were on the right track. Meaning, the track to Emily. He clambered onto a large whale oil vat in front of the slaughterhouse, hearing the thudding and creaking sounds coming from within. He knew Daud would now be moving to the valves closer to the door, with plenty of time to-

There was a crashing sound from within as various pipes heading into the slaughterhouse burst. Beneath the whaler mask, Corvo's eyes widened as the sounds of roughly _everything_ blowing within the complex. Almost as though, for example, a pressure burst in a nearby brothel had caused the water system in the slaughterhouse (dealing with an incredibly flammable substance) to fail. Leaping from his perch, Corvo sprinted through the doorway, looking around the entrance room. Cracks were appearing in the infrastructure, but, beneath the squealing and booming, he could hear the subtle sound of someone using a traversal power, and fast. He listened as a fourth, fifth, and sixth blink was used, then a short break before they resumed. Daud had only brought a few phials of remedy with him on this job, not expecting this level of mana use, and there was no knowing how many times he'd blinked before Corvo had started counting-

He saw Daud sprint round the corner, panting, face set in a grim expression, and was about to run to help, until a small chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling and cracked against the assassin boss' head, knocking him out cold. The roof was failing, about to fall, Corvo might not have time to save him, but if he just left, walked away, he'd be free to search for Emily on his own…

But the Whalers would be looking for him, and there was no gurantee he could find Emily without the man's help…

Growling, Corvo sprinted forwards, and inside him something clicked, as though the link between him and Daud now broke something down and allowed… Corvo flexed his fingers, mimicking the gestures he'd seen performed countless times, and the world blurred around him as he teleported to beside Daud's side, hoisted the man over his shoulder and teleported again, bringing him out the door just as the roof came down and buried the place in rubble.

The lord regent.

Inwardly, Madame Prudence growled as Hiram Burrows clenched his fists in front of her and yelled "What do you mean they're _Gone_?"

The Loyalists

Admiral Havelock sat at his desk, downing a shot of whiskey and otherwise fretting about the absence of an assassin. It seems that after the disaster with Kaldwin, no-one really wanted to assassinate high end political figures at the moment. He sighed and rubbed his temples, closing his eyes-

And heard an ominous giggle from behind him. He spun round, but there was no-one there and the door was still closed. But there was a sheet of paper, wafting in the breeze of the open window. He snatched it out of the air and began to read the elegant script, his eyes widening every passing line.

 _Dear Admiral Havelock._

 _It has come to my attention that someone has blamed my witchery on an innocent little girl. How entertaining. Yet I happen to be rather fond of the young Kaldwin, so I've elected to help you help her. The Pendletons will be returned in a day (I should hope) but that ought to grant you ample time to promote your ally to High Overseer, and get the witch charges off the young girl. Maybe blame Daud, I'm rather poorly disposed towards the assassin. So until you need another little bit of espionage dealt with (and I'll know if you do) this is goodbye._

 _Sincerely, the Void Singer._

 _P.S: I've left one of my agents in care of the empress. Do be kind to him, would you?_

The letter dropped from Havelock's hands. He gulped. And reached for his whisky again.

 **Bantah! One day late! Cos we get a long weekend! Oot! Oot! Whatever Mire told you, i legitimately am sorry i'm not updating ADMT, but it will come! I promise! The moment i get off my lasy arse. See y'all!**


	15. Act 3: Chapter 13: Doctor

Doctor's orders

Callista reached for the key to Emily's room rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She was fine with early mornings, it was in her job description, but she had made a point of warning her superiors that _no-one_ woke her up before 6 o'clock except in _extreme_ emergencies. And there was no way this was _actually_ that serious. "I'm positive, Admiral." She sighed, as the clock struck half four. "Wallace was stationed on the only exit; you think Samuel sleeps lightly? I don't think Wallace sleeps. look, no-one could have gotten in to see her unless they could teleport, or maybe climb walls."

She heard a small gurgling noise from him, but decided to ignore it as she turned the key in the lock. "I really don't know what you're worried about, she-"

"Hey, who turned the lights on?" The two adults in the doorway gaped at the boy grumbling at them from beneath a pile of spare clothes. Next to him, on the bed, Emily opened her eyes. "Oh, hello Callista. Is it morning already?"

Callista blinked. Twice. Then looked back at the boy on the floor. "Uh, Emily? Who is this?"

Emily smiled up at her. "Oh, he's a street urchin who has the rat plague."

Behind her, Havelock had drawn his pistol and seemed to be wondering what to do with it. "Um, Empress…" He said, slowly. "Why is… he… here?"

The boy smiled at him, sitting up and stretching. "Oh, my boss sent me to look after the empress. Name's Thomas."

Havelock's hand on the pistol shook the tiniest amount. "Your…Boss?"

Thomas casually hefted a chair with his pinkie finger before thumping it down and sitting on it, eyes staring intently at Havelock. "Yup. That a problem?"

Callista seemed annoyed. "We don't even know who you are or how you got in here! Do you really think we are going to just let you stay?"

"Of course we will." Havelock said hurriedly from behind her. "We'll have a bath prepared for you, those rags look filthy. Now if you'll excuse us." He grabbed Callista and hoisted her out the room and onto the walkway, taking her across the roof of Pierro's workshop. "What on earth has gotten into you Havelock?" Callista rounded on him for a moment before realising who she was speaking to. "I mean- I do apologise, Admiral, it's just… what?"

Havelock sighed. "Unless I'm grossly mistaken, that child's 'boss' just did us a huge favour."

"Sir!" Samuel's voice came from the courtyard beneath them. "Paper, and you won't believe the top story! Some witch and a boy just broke into golden cat and kidnapped the Pendletons! Some terrified witnesses are calling her the void singer!"

Havelock took in a deep breath as the maid gaped, finger pointing at Havelock, then Samuel, then Emily's room. "Callista, have something nice sent up to my room will you? I think I need a lie down."

._.

"Do you think they bought it?" Thomas called out from the bathroom, a few hours later. Emily sighed, from her position guarding the door. "The royal spymaster is a traitorous son of a hagfish, but he taught me some things that are useful. For example, lies are best concealed in truths."

"You're going on an anecdote again!" Thomas' voice echoed, accompanied by sloshing.

"I know, don't interrupt it. The loyalists think you were sent to protect me by a witch, which is completely true. They think you and a scary witch lady are helping them get me in power, which is also completely true. The only thing they don't know is that I am the witch, which is good because I can't become empress if the dominant religion of the isles hates me."

"So that's the game plan." Came Thomas' voice. "Use Outsider magic to disgrace or otherwise remove all traitors, get revenge on Daud for killing your mother, cure the rat plague (and then me, please) and takeover the isles. Simple. What's the first step?"

"Get out of the bath." Emily huffed. "It's cold out here, and you'll be getting gunk in the water!"

._.

"Pierro?"

Emily cautiously wandered into the workshop, examining the various technical devices with complete confusion. "Ah, miss Kaldwin! Please, come upstairs, it's slightly more hospitable." Emily wandered up the metal grate and onto a balcony area where Pierro was engaging in his favourite pastime: Tinkering. "If you look on the bedside table you'll see your slingshot m'lady." He said from the whateveritwas. "I've made some improvements to it; you'll be able to kill a crow at fifty metres if you aim straight." He paused. "Of course, I don't know why you'll need that much power at that range, but we live in dangerous times. Why, I don't doubt you could send a man unconscious at five- ah, forget I said that."

Emily picked up the improved slingshot, noting a scope and a different elastic, and pocketed it. "Hey Pierro, I have a question. How does the rat plague… work?"

._.

Thomas crept through the sewers, keeping an eye out for river crusts. A rat skittered by his feet, and he hastily squashed it. He _hated_ being guilt tripped into things. _"Oh no there are weepers, oh wouldn't it be so great if a certain someone would help, subtle look in your direction, hint hint."_ He muttered to himself in an artificially high voice, rolling his eyes and looking further in. There was a weeper there, crouched over a wrecked bench of some kind and coughing up blood. Even without his sight, he could _feel_ the rune nearby it. Quietly, but quickly, he padded forwards, coming up behind the weeper and fingering the dart of sleep poison in his pocket. Behind it, he drew out the dart, eyes pinpointing its neck. Then the groan of the second weeper emanated from behind him.

._.

Pierro looked at her and inched his glasses up his nose, clearly moving into 'lecture mode'. "Well, the plague appears to be bacterial. It's symptoms are simple; the afflicted experiences general poor health, then damage to the skin, then coughing blood, before losing their senses and attacking others, which has the unfortunate effect of afflicting them as well. We know it is transmitted by the rats, who breed rapidly in such sickly conditions, however its origin is difficult to discern. Usually plagues that sweep through places do so because they are passed from foreign countries who are themselves resistant to it, a likely cause, being a multi-island empire, yet research from a friend of mine, Dr Galvani-" Emily winced, slightly "Implies that it originated deep _inside_ Dunwall, rather than from somewhere else, almost as though it was introduced artificially.."

Emily thought for a moment, absorbing the info. "And what about curing it?"

Pierro frowned. "What is with this sudden…Ah. The boy." Emily nodded. "Well in that case…"

._.

Thomas looked at the weeper. The weeper looked at Thomas. Then the weeper turned around and began shuffling off in the other direction. Thomas let out the breath he had been holding and looked down at his wound, obscured by the bandages he wore around it (despite eschewing a shirt) _Okay. So that works._ There were some perks to being almost the definition of plagued. He grabbed the weeper by the shoulder and raised the sleep dart.

._.

Pierro lifted up a phial of the remedy from the desk beside him, holding it up to the light. "This is my concoction. I have been forced to rely on materials derived from the nearby river crusts, hunting them has become a kind of sport among us here at the Hound Pits. However, the Royal Physician, Anton Sokolov, has far more resources at his disposal." Pierro lifted up a red phial. "I have of course analysed this, as I have no doubt he has analysed mine, but without knowledge of its creation process, there is little it can do to help me. If Sokolov were here, working with me, we _may_ be able to create something that could actually _cure_ weepers… but it's frankly impossible."

Emily turned away, not trusting her expression. "And is there anything else that would help?"

Pierro chuckled. "Well, I suppose having a live weeper would be useful. But I sincerely doubt that-"

 _"_ _Hey! Anyone want a live weeper?"_ The pair looked out through the window to where the 10 year old Thomas was, in apparent violation of physics, casually carrying two weepers over his shoulders, with a maid gushing over him. There was a pause (in which Pierro suspended his disbelief and Emily believed) before the two ran downstairs to confront the grinning boy.

._.

"Alright, miss Kaldwin, we will only be gone for a few hours." Treavor Pendleton stated, as he, the Admiral and Overseer Martin got into the taxi-on-rails-thing that would take them to parliament. "Try to stay out of trouble. _Please._ We don't want to lose you on Bottle Street again, do we?"

Emily and Thomas both nodded their heads sincerely, and continued to do so as the car left. And then-

._.

Samuel stared at the two children looking up at him. "You want me to take you _where?"_

 **Here! Have an interlude! Hopefully this sets some things straight with you all. Next week, dey be goin on a bridge. See y'all!**


	16. Act 3: Chapter 14: Hit the Lights

Hit the lights

"Just to let you know, what you're doing with the whole defying authority thing is the _right thing to do._ " Thomas reassured from the back of the boat.

Samuel turned around and looked him in the eye. "Sonny. I don't trust you. Bear in mind I can turn this boat around right now."

Thomas huffed and sat back as Emily giggled. The boat neared the Kaldwin Bridge, clouds swirling between the giant towering spires. "You ever visit this, your empressness?" Thomas asked, curious.

Emily nodded. "Mother would take me there, sometimes, when she was free. We'd look over the traffic, and she'd tell me that one day, I'd have to look after all these people…" She blinked and sniffed. "What about you?"

"I climbed it once." Thomas said, indifferently. "We should check out the view from the top while we're here."

In front of them, Samuel sighed. "Sure. Make sure to enjoy yourselves while you take care of your political kidnapping."

Then he squinted, and groaned. "Oh perfect. I don't think I'll be able to take you much further, miss. They've set up spotlights over the river."

 _I need some kind of spyglass._ Emily bemoaned to herself as she looked into the distance, but she could see the spotlights alright, their harsh circles of light illuminating the river, despite the cloud cover dimming the area to barely visible. She could see the fins of hagfish flashing above the waves.

"You'll have to turn them off if you want me to get any closer than this to the house." Samuel stated, pulling into dock below the main road. "I still don't know _why_ or even _how_ you're going to kidnap the royal physician, but I'll help however I can."

Emily shrugged as Thomas pulled her out of the boat, then grabbed him round the waist. "We'll wing it." She smiled, before pulling her veil down and vanishing from sight.

"This is the girl who's going to rule the Isles. Lovely." Samuel sighed, before sitting down to wait.

._.

Emily dropped them through the window of a tower off the main road and moved up the stairs as Thomas retched in the corner. "How come I never puke when _I_ teleport?"

"My driver once said he'd always get motion sickness unless _he_ was driving. Maybe it's like that?"

"Because of course you got a _car_ when you needed to go places." Thomas rolled his eyes, seeing a tendril flash out to grab an oil canister before vanishing upstairs, and he followed it. "Where I come from? You gotta learn to run, climb, know the alleyways-"

"Or hitch a ride." When he got up there, he saw Emily sat on some kind of train cart that led past a guarded street.

He raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You're just gonna cheat and drive a cart to the bridge?"

A _look_ came across Emily's face. "It's not cheating… especially if it's a race."

There was a pause. The pair looked each other in the eyes. Then Thomas reached down and slammed on the lever that opened the aperture before leaping out into the street.

He hurled himself onto one of the street lights, balancing for a moment and looking back to see Emily's cart already moving. He jumped over the heads of the oblivious guards, swinging himself from another street light onto a balcony. Seeing no way forwards on the street, he went further into the balcony's house, barging through a locked door and revealing a small room with a hole in the wall. He jumped through that, gripped by sudden vertigo as he fell into a harbour of sorts. He softened his fall with a guards face, knocking the poor man out cold, before darting up a series of steps, barging through another door-

And colliding with Emily.

They both collapsed to the street, Emily's veil slipping off, both issuing short gasps of pain and bewilderment, before looking up at each other.

"So I guess that was a tie, huh?" Said Thomas.

"It was a fast cart." Emily acknowledged, giggling. Her mirth lasted a whole two seconds. "Hey! You! Who are-oh. Oh." The two children spun round and quickly realised that they were both stood on a patrolled street. A group of guards were looking at them in horror. They had guns. Slipping into character, Emily slipped the veil back down, gave them a giggle and a cheerful wave, then grabbed Thomas' arm and ran.

._.

"See this, this is a good job!"

Jack sighed at his partners antics. "Geoff, why are you celebrating? We are in _not_ the Golden Cat, this is a far worse job."

The two stood at the base of Kaldwin's bridge, an arc pylon buzzing quietly beside them. Geoff shrugged. "Well, look, I reckon it's a promotion. I mean, before we were just guarding politicians, but now it's the bloomin' royal physician! I bet it's because we scared off those witch children."

"Yeah, they sure ran off. _With our charges._ What's with you, you're acting all boisterous?"

Geoff blinked. "Is it not working? I'm trying to be brave!" He then muttered beneath his breath. "I thought you said you liked brave people…"

Jack full on laughed. "Yeah. Okay, that's-"

They were cut off from a shout from down the street. "Bobbies! Let's shank 'em, boys!" A small group of thugs rushed up to the pair. Geoff quickly shoved himself in front of Jack, brandishing his sword and shouting. "Don't worry, my friend! I will defend us!"

The thugs drew closer, Geoff tensed, and the pylon beside them whirred to life, bolts of lightning blasting forth to disintegrate the thugs.

"…Oh." Was Geoff's only response, as he shifted awkwardly in his fighting stance and a few ashes fell to the floor.

"Don't worry buddy." Jack sniggered, patting his crestfallen friend on the shoulder. "How about we turn off the super useful lightning thing and next time the scum turn up, you can kill them?"

Geoff opened his mouth to reply-

"Get the witch!"

"Run faster- aw crap, Arc pylon!"

"Arc what?"

"Just don't go near it!"

The two spun round to see a far too muscled boy in bandages and a veiled girl in a dress sprinting towards them, a group of guards hot on their trail. Geoff let out a whimper, even as Jack grimaced. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me, them again?"

.-.

Emily clicked her fingers again, another of the guards following tripping over his own shadow, literally. The Kaldwin Bridge loomed above them, but before it were two strangely familiar guards and an 'arc pylon', with another pylon stationed on the bridge proper. She saw the whale oil tank connected to it, considering the use of her slingshot. Then she had another idea. "Thomas!" She panted. "How far can you boost me up?"

He pointed to his chest wound. "If I risk using this...well, how far do you need boosting?"

They were almost upon the checkpoint. "Up and forwards, as far as you can. Now!"

Moving in front, Thomas fell to a knee. Emily ran up onto his back, then lurched as he exploded upwards, catapulting her high into the air. She flew right over the shocked faces of the guards and the pylon, and then launched a grapple down to the whale oil tank. Heaving, she detached it from its port, killing the pylon, and, as she reached the apex of her leap, she flung the tendril and tank over her head and into the second pylon, the resulting explosion hurling nearby guards backwards and shaking the bridge itself. When the smoke cleared, the two children were gone.

._.

Emily sat at the peak of the Kaldwin bridge, legs dangling off the edge as she watched the sunset. Thomas approached from behind, setting down two detached whale oil tanks and flopping beside her. "These seemed important so I nicked 'em, so now the lights are out, Samuel should be moving up further now." He remarked, stretching. "Cool stunt, by the way. I don't know where you get these ideas, but I'm pretty sure those guards are even more scared of you now."

He turned to Emily, but she was silent, gazing out over the river and Dunwall beyond it.

"This is my city." She stated, quietly. "It looks pretty in the sunset, doesn't it?"

"...Yes?" Thomas replied, cautiously.

"But it isn't when you look closely. It's full of plague, corruption, violence... And it's my job, as empress, to fix it." She stood up, looking towards the large building in the near distance. "Come on. Let's go get our physician."

Thomas just sat there, smiling at her back as she leapt from the roof, before jumping to his feet and following her.

 **III LIIIIIIIVE! Alrighty, put the pitchforks down, let me explain. I was revising for tests, then i was doing the tests, then i was on work experience for a fortnight, and now i'm here. I have no real excuse, but now I'm back, and i can promise the next chapter next week, because i've already written the tossing thing.**

 **So...Dishonored two gameplay trailer. Well damn. Just saying, the pacify everyone demon thing seems a lot like Emily's singing...Eh? Eh?**

 **Next chapter has significantly more progress and stuff to talk about, so you'll have to wait for for now, enjoy your first update in a month or so, and See y'all next week!**


	17. Act 3: Chapter 15: Last one out

Last one out

Jack and Geoff jogged alongside the other guards, moving towards Sokolov's house. It was quite obvious that the witch and her subordinate were after the scientist, meaning that he had to be warned ASAP. They were almost at his front porch, just reaching the large wheels that spun for... Some reason. They were just about to pass the wall of light when a form dropped to the ground in front of the group, rolling and reaching a standstill. Thomas gave them a cheery wave. "'Ello there! Sorry fellas, but my boss has a meeting with your physician, and she could really do with some one to one time, you know?"

The captain of the group drew a pistol and pointed it at the ten year old. "Move aside, witch child! I will not allow your mistress to assassinate the Royal Physician!"

Thomas tutted. "Nah, you don't understand. The Void Singer doesn't like killing. Honestly believes that she can get through this debacle without spilling a single drop of blood. She's naive like that."

The pistol in the captain's hand began to shake slightly.

Thomas stretched his arm. "Thing is, you saw her face back when you saw us, didn't you? I take it that dispels her little illusion?"

The captain nodded as Jack and Geoff looked at each other in confusion. "She looked like... but that would mean..."

Thomas sighed. "I know, right? But the world can't know that when you wake up. Which means, sadly-"

Resolve snapping, the captain squeezed the trigger on the pistol, but even as the shot fired, the child's outline blurred, and suddenly he was right in front of the captain, the man flying backwards from an illogically forceful punch. Thomas smiled sadly. "Well. Someone has to do the dirty work."

._.

Emily crouched behind a large lump of fallen masonry and looked forwards, her eyes narrowing. She was right beneath Sokolov's mansion, and saw a group of people penned into a wrecked building by a wall of light. She could hear what the nearby guards were saying, too:

"Sir! If you don't mind me asking; the girl we took up to Sokolov's penthouse, she didn't seem that bad, plague wise. Why was that?"

"Because those who are very sick already provide little data that Mr Sokolov does not already know."

Emily's breath caught. No. He doesn't mean...

"He's deliberately infecting healthy citizens? Isn't that a little-"

"It's none of our damned business, that's what it is. The Royal Physician knows best, science is his arena. Just keep your eyes focuses outwards and don't ask too many questions, that's the fastest way to-"

-and Emily snapped. A tendril latched onto the whale oil canister powering the light wall, whopping. It round and hurling it above the heads of the guards to explode farther down the street. They both span around, exposing their back's to Emily. Two fast pulls of the slingshot fired small chunks of rubble at their heads, ringing the helmets like bells as they collapsed unconscious to the floor. The people in the pen cowered back against the wall as Emily turned to them. "Go." She said, simply, before vanishing with a grapple.

._.

Thomas laughed as he leapt between the wheels, easily dodging the potshots from the scattered guards. His grin turned to a grimace as his cursed wound burned. Resolving to finish this soon, he 'dashed' down to the soldiers and smashed a fist into one of their stomachs, throwing him into the wall. Unconscious. Dammit. He kicked a sword from another's hand and swept their legs, elbowing them to the ground before vanishing as another bullet slammed into the concrete. "Could you just get hit harder please!" He called, from the control box several metres above them. "It will suck if I have to kill you when you aren't fighting back!" Then he smashed through the window down towards them.

._.

Up on Sokolov's balcony, a guard stood beside the railing turned around only to receive a stone to the helmet. He staggered backwards over the railing, but a grapple pulled him back towards the building. Emily stalked past in a rage. That disgusting... Sacrificing healthy people like animals...if I didn't need him then I would...

She slammed through the door into the top room of the house. She wanted to scare him. She wanted to reprimand him for what he was doing to her people!

"Anton Sokolov! What do you think you are doing!"

Her voice sounded more adult than usual. Stronger. Sokolov whirled round and the moment he laid eyes on her, he went as white as a sheet. "What! Y-Your majesty! But, but you're dead! I- By the void I'm so sorry, I!"

His eyes rolled into the top of his head and he passed out. Emily blinked, confused, and looked around the room, spotting a young woman in a cage in the corner. Fishing a key from Sokolov's pocket, she went to free the woman, who was staring at her with the same horrified expression. "What?" Emily asked, exasperated. "Is the mask that scary?" The woman pointed wordlessly at a mirror in the corner, and upon looking at it, Emily almost fainted herself. Where her reflection should be was a tall woman with dark hair and a serious demeanour. It had the face of Jessamine Kaldwin.

._.

Thomas stood before the two remaining, cowering guards, with a wry smile on his face. "You two I don't have to kill, y'know."

Geoff looked up with a hopeful expression. "You...you don't?"

Thomas shook his head. "Nah, you joined the chase later, didn't hear her name. Trust me, it really can't get out."

Jack looked around at the multiple unconscious forms around them. "These people...you're just going to finish them off? But you're so..."

Thomas sighed. "Young? You grow up fast on the streets. My boss is brilliant, but she's still immature. She still believes she can do this without killing anyone, but...well, that's why she needs me."

"Maybe she can?" Geoff spoke up, prompting a confused look. "I mean, she's a witch! Is there really anything she can't do?"

Thomas stared at him intently. "She once told me that this city is full of plague, corruption and violence. Do you think it's possible to survive here without becoming that bad?"

Gulping, Geoff replied "I, I think that if you have to resort to that, you've already failed."

There was a long pause. Then Thomas sighed. "Makes sense. But I can't just let them go tell the high overseers my boss' identity…"

"We may be able to help you out?" Thomas turned to see a young woman he didn't recognise leading a group of other strangers. "Your 'boss' just freed us all from a crazy scientist, so if you need those guards looking after, we can deal with it."

Thomas chuckled, looking to his shoes. "So that's how she does it…"

"Oh, and she has a message, apparently she wants help getting someone to a boat?"

At that, Thomas was gone.

 **Hah! Character development! Here, take it! I hope this clears up some things about her veil. Even if they should be able to realise who it is, they can't. However, if she removes it in their prescence or her identity is otherwise revealed, like her name being said. Also, OOH LOOK AT THAT ALTERNATIVE TO CORVO'S POSSESSION POWER!**

 **See y'all!**


	18. Act 3: Aftermaths

Interlude:

The Loyalists

Admiral Havelock nodded to Sam as he left the carriage, and walked into the hound pits courtyard, seeing Emily and her…companion throwing stones at some bottles on a wall. Children.

"Empress!" He called out. "Gotten up to anything while I was out?"

Emily looked up at him and shook her head, smiling. "No, not really."

"And you, young man, gotten anything done?"

Thomas coughed awkwardly, scratching his neck, while Samuel whistled to himself and went indoors. "Well…Before I answer that, the place with the bars is meant to be a dungeon, right?"

The Lord Regent

"It's outrageous!" Hiram Burrows practically shouted, before flopping back into his chair with a sigh. "It's like that man Martin is openly mocking me in court and there is nothing I can do about it! Blaming the Empress' death on Daud and some other witch, they've even sent Overseer Hume into the Flooded district to look for them, have you ever heard such nonsense?" He stopped himself when he realised what he was saying, and growled. Draped on the side of his chair, Lady Boyle pouted. "I'm sure it's not that bad, you're still in charge, right?"

Hiram sighed. "I am, but the only remaining Pendleton and the new High Overseer are both campaigning against me."

"Well then, I shall just have to win some of the politicians over tonight at the ball." Lady Boyle smiled. "No one puts on a show like me and my sisters, and we have a wonderful prank planned for our guests tonight."

"Good." Hiram stood up and stretched. "I must oversee the augmentation of my defences. You should probably head to the manor."

"Uh, sir?" came a man's voice from the doorway.

Hiram sighed and spun on the guards waiting outside his door. "What _Now?"_

Jack and Geoff shuffled nervously. "Uh, you aren't going to like this…"

The Dishonoured Protector

"Sir, the men aren't happy. The prisoners aren't giving us an inch, the once who talk are worse than the ones who won't, and Daud is nowhere to be found."

Overseer Hume glared up from behind Daud's desk at the man, an Overseer with a music box watching the show from beside him with vague amusement. "Remind the men that Daud is an ageing mercenary, and that they are Overseers of the Abbey." Another Overseer walked into the room, clicking the door behind him. "Daud will show, until he does hold position. And what do you want?" He turned to the new Overseer, but his outline blurred, and a man in a whaler mask but an irregular coat seeming to come out from the back of the crumpling man, pulling a pistol from his bandoleer and firing at the music box, shattering a key mechanism and disabling the device.

Hume drew his sabre and engaged the man, grimace set on his face. "Daud, I take it? I'm unimpressed. I was told that your victims never saw you!"

The masked figure vanished, and there was a cry from behind him as the man embedded a dart in one of the Overseers necks, before vanishing again. Spinning in confusion, he saw another Overseer fall, before a pair of arms wrapped around his neck. "The dead cannot see." Came the man's voice, as Hume's vision went black.

._.

Daud burst through the sewer gate, weapon in hand as Billie Lurk appeared before him. "Overseers." She growled. "They've attacked the hideout, kidnapped most of the assassins there. Hume is in your office waiting for you, and-"

"I took care of it." Corvo appeared before Daud, coat rustling, as he and Billie did a double take.

"What?"

"I took care of it."

Daud blinked. "The whole attack? You just-"

"I was scouting when it happened. I came back, freed the assassins, and took out Hume. He and the other Overseers are in the process of being questioned." Even through the Whaler mask, Daud could feel Corvo's stare. "No-one kills you except me."

Billie let out a small breath, fogging up her mask slightly. _Good. They didn't realise…well, I was going to drop it anyway-_

"Oh, and also-" Corvo vanished, reappearing behind Billie and twisting her traversal arm behind her back in a move that was as sudden as it was unexpected. "The boat you were searching for at the slaughterhouse, and the person you just went after without me. Her name was Delilah, correct?"

Daud, stood there watching impassively, nodded. Corvo twisted the arm further, causing a hissed reaction from Billie. "Well, she paid us a visit when all was done. It turns out someone ratted us out to the Overseers. Guess who?"

Daud sighed and turned away. "Take her back up to my office, I want a full account of this."

When both vanished, Billie unresisting, Daud stood there for a good few seconds. A single bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

 **So hey, you know how i just came back from the grave? Well, i'm going back into it. Holidays, gentlemen and ladies, without wifi of any sort! Yaaay...**

 **Don't worry, i'll still be writing, which means more when i get back, but you're going to have a two week wait, unless i visit a Mcdonalds with free wifi or something. Or try to use my 4G, but Pokemon go wont work by itself!**

 **At least i finished off this little segment off for you all early. See y'all!**


	19. Act 4: Chapter 16: Interrogations

THE HYPE IS BACK LETS GO.

Interrogation

You kidnapped the Royal Physician?!"

"Yup."

"And locked him in our cell?!"

"Uh huh."

Emily watched in amusement from the wall she sat on, adjusting her bone tiara as Havelock raged at a completely relaxed Thomas.

"How did you- Never mind, I don't want to know, but what about the guards?"

"No problem."

"Or the Overseers?"

"You mean the guards, but without pistols?"

Havelock sighed, turning away and putting a hand to his face.

Emily took that moment to flick down her veil. "I trust you aren't bothering my subordinate all too much, Admiral?"

Havelock span round, hand on cutlass, looking to where a young girl in a white dress was sat, looking remarkably like-

No. He couldn't possibly know who she was. _She was wearing a veil._

"How did you get there?" Havelock asked, his voice breaking slightly.

"Oh I have my ways." Said the Void Singer. "Do you like my present?"

Havelock wiped his brow. "The Royal Physician? I wouldn't use the word _like_...how did you know?"

Emily tilted her head, thinking _wow, this veil is really good at its job,_ and only letting out a small "Hmm?"

Havelock snapped. "Don't give me that! How did you know we needed to interrogate the physician?"

 _I have no idea what you're talking about._ "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Emily dusted off her dress (even though there wasn't a speck on it) and jumped down. "Now then, shall we go see him?"

._.

Thomas walked back out from the room to the expectant crowd of faces. "He's awake." He said, turning to Emily. "Go nuts m'lady." She nodded, and tilted her head to the gathered loyalists, all stood beside her with very fidgety postures. "Be warned, you may find this...unsettling." She brandished one hand, the mark of the outsider glowing, and she began to grow. Colour spread through the white dress, turning it into a regal blue even as it changed into a more mature design. It had to, as its occupant grew taller, body shape becoming more mature and defined. The face behind the veil seemed to shimmer, not that anyone could make it out, and when the child, the _woman_ , pushed up the veil, everyone recoiled several steps. "What?" Said the visage of Jessamine Kaldwin. "Don't you recognise your dear empress?"

"That's bloomin creepy, can I just say?" Thomas remarked, before three pistols were aimed at the woman. "Impostor." Growled the High Overseer. " _Witch_. I should kill you now!"

"You could certainly try." The Void Singer conceded. "But that would annoy me, and you need me, don't you?" Smiling over her shoulder, she pushed open the door.

Anton Sokolov recoiled from the bars of his cage as if struck when he saw her walk in, staggering towards the back end of his small container.

"Enjoying your quarters?" Asked Emily, attempting to remain calm from within her mother's body. "You should thank me, you won't die if you touch the edges of the cell. Unlike your _test subjects_."

She didn't need to act to put the venom into her voice.

"Empress?" Sokolov gasped, seemingly struggling to breathe. "How? You're supposed to be dead!"

"Of course." Emily replied. "And you seem to have no problem working with my murderers."

"You were killed by Daud's assassins! And some-"

"I know you are bad with social occasions Anton." Emily growled. "But I did not take you for naive."

Sokolov slumped. "No. Not naive. Of course I knew what the Spymaster did, but what could the shut-in physician do about him?" The man put his head in his hands. "Why have you come back to haunt me?"

"My daughter."

The words caused him to bring his head up. "Emily Kaldwin will return to Dunwall tower, and she will topple the Lord Regent from his lofty perch."

Sokolov stood up, adjusting his ruined and dirty suit. "What do you want me to do?"

"For one thing, you can continue to try and cure the rat plague. But first..." Emily subtlety coughed. "The Lord Regent has a…mistress who is supporting him financially. And I understand that you painted her."

._.

Once again a child, the Void Singer walked out from the room to the group of nervous loyalists. "We may have a problem." She stated, simply. "Burrows' mistress is lady Boyle."

"Which lady Boyle?" Pendleton quickly asked, prompting a sigh.

"That is the problem. Whichever of the three it was, she was painted from behind and Anton does not know who it was."

Havelock let out a growl of frustration. "Damnit. Must we kill all of them?"

"I doubt we'll need to." Pendleton laid a calming hand on his friends shoulder. "The Boyle sisters are holding a ball tonight, and a masked one at that. It should provide ample opportunity to explore the house, ask questions, and all the sisters will be in one place. But who should we seeeen...d."

The Void Singer giggled and curtsied. "Well then. I'll be back here at twilight. Prepare your boatman!"

"Wait!" Martin called out to her. "Why are you doing this? What do you have to gain?"

"Oh believe me." The Void Singer replied. "I'm helping myself here just as much as I'm helping you."

With that, she vanished, and a few moments later, Emily Kaldwin appeared from the main complex with an "Oh hello! What did I miss?"

Thomas looked at them all incredulously. "Okay, do you seriously not know who she is?"

 **What you should be taking from this encounter is that Emily's veil is** ** _Really_** **good at its job. nexxt chapter, the boyle party, and all the fun to be had there. ;) at least you know how she'll be getting in. See y'all!**


	20. Act 4: Chapter 17: Party Crasher

Party crashing

" _I'd give that to your empress, little rat child."_ Thomas glared at the Outsider, pocketing the rune he'd grabbed. The shrine glowed that horrible, eerie purple that engulfed the Outsider like a shroud, the man, the _god,_ floating in his pristine suit. "Well _I_ can hardly use it." Thomas replied, brushing off the arm of a curious, but largely uninterested weeper. "Anything useful you can give me?"

The Outsider smiled that smile of his, the one that said ' _I know more than you ever will, and may share some of it if you amuse me._ ' _"Useful for what?"_

"Useful for _her._ " Thomas growled. "Something that might help her. Void knows she needs it."

" _Oh the Void definitely knows that, rat child. Fortunately, she has a protector."_

"Damn straight she does."

 _"_ _You think I refer to you?"_ The Outsider chuckled. " _Perhaps. A rook may still protect a queen, though it is entirely overshadowed by it. But I referred to a man who was a mere pawn, and yet flung himself to the end of the board and became a knight, the piece that can do what the queen cannot… inform your little empress that help may come from the most unlikely of places."_ Thomas shook his head at the riddle and turned to go. " _Oh, and make sure to hand her that note in your pocket."_ He looked back, but the Outsiders form was already fading. Sighing, he leapt from the window.

._.

The fireworks exploded high above the mansion, the clock struck 12, a tallboy fired an arrow at a crowd of weepers, and Samuel's boat drifted slowly down the canal. "Well, I have no idea how you pulled that stunt off m'lady." The boatman remarked, looking back at his passenger. "But those loyalists were either bewitched or stupid, and I know they 'aint the latter."

"I don't like deceiving them." Emily replied, scrutinising the manor appearing in the distance. "But one of them is the _high Overseer_. If they knew I was a witch they would kill me!"

"And me, and Sammy, and Callista for all I Cur-know. Heh, get it?" Thomas landed on the boat, unbalancing it and causing ripples across the water. "The way I see it, it doesn't matter if you have the most wretched, cursed sword in history, if you use it to kill bad people, it's a good thing."

Emily waggled a finger at him. "No, you bop them over the head with the hilt and jail them, oh stop rolling your eyes and report."

._.

The tallboy clanked along the road, its rider glaring down at the weeper who was stumbling towards it. Pulling a lever it fired one of its arrows down towards the creature, flames curling about it as it prepared to deliver its explosive payload. There was a blue flash, and the bolt flew to the side. Sluggishly, he turned, seeing a small girl in a white dress sat on a flickering lamp post, spinning the projectile around her fingers.

"You shouldn't just kill them." The witch sighed. "They're people too, you know."

Knowing no other response, the tallboy fired another explosive bolt, but she flung hers and the two collided with a loud bang. When the smoke cleared she was gone.

._.

Emily walked calmly up the road, heels clacking on the dirty cobblestones. Once again, she felt thankful for Granny Rags and her dress that seemingly wouldn't dirty at anything. The entrance to the Boyles' party was up ahead, and the couple at the gate seemed to be presenting an invitation. Ah. That could be a problem. However, a gust of wind yanked the invitation from the woman's hand, sending it blowing down the street, and the man grabbed her, making some cautionary remark about chasing down the street at night. Emily caught the fluttering letter, smiled, and focused. She felt her form shift and change, her dress altering to match. Thank goodness it's a masked ball. She thought, flicking her veil down. It would raise more than a few eyebrows if Jessamine Kaldwin was in attendance.

She walked up to the booth and handed the invitation in with a smile, before realising that that wasn't exactly visible at the moment. "Welcome, Madame...well, i suppose that's the secret, isn't it?" The man looked over the invitation. "Everything looks in order. Please enjoy yourself. It promises to be an eventful evening."

"Oh I sincerely hope so." Emily suppressed a fit of giggles as she walked through. And was met with magnificence. Arched ceilings, marble floors, a register with dozens of recognisable names, glasses of the bubbly drink she'd tried once and never touched again...it was exactly like all the parties she'd always wanted to go to. She recalled all the evenings sat in her room in Dunwall tower, looking on the window towards a mansion with lights blaring, knowing that her mother was doing something far more interesting than she was. Now here she was, wearing her mother's body to gain entry. It felt so...cheeky. She promised herself that one day, she would attend such events openly as herself. For now, she settled for grabbing a pen and, with a flourish, signing Emily Kaldwin on the register.

Okay, recap. Three women in identical dresses, different colours. One of them is the lady Boyle, the others are her sisters. Shes the one funding Burrows. So stop it...somehow. Great.

Emily did a lap of the ground floor of the building, carefully avoiding conversations while listening for information. The three Boyles were not hard to find. The one in red was loud and laughing, never straying too far from the drinks table. The one in white was wistful and quiet. The other, in black, was also quiet, but jumpy, and reserved. The way upstairs was blocked by a wall of light and Emily, after casually inquiring, discovered that the guests were not keyed in, though the Boyles were. It would fry her if she tried to walk through, and it wasn't as if she could use weapons or powers in front of all these people to get upstairs. That would prove bothersome. In an attempt to find her way up, she walked out into the garden, and her eyes alighted upon a man in a wolf mask.

 **I have dishonored two. Yeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssss... Ignoring the painful wait, congratulations, you have more.**


	21. Act 4: Chapter 19: Party crasher part 2

**Party crashing Part 2**

"So the red one has to be Waverly, right?"

Jack sighed. "Geoff, you've been randomly shuffling their names and colours for the past 20 minutes. Do you even know which one is which...you know what? I give up." They watched as a woman in a veil walked up to the man in the wolf mask who stood near them. "Lord Shaw, is it?" She adressed him.

He turned to her. "Correct my lady, glad to make your acquaintance. Is there something that I can do for you?"  
"I believe so." The woman withdrew a note from within one of the pockets in her robes, which Lord Shaw took and began to read. "It's from Treavor Pendleton," the woman continued. "I'm afraid I haven't read the contents inside, so-"

Lord Shaw flung the note to the ground, and Jack and Geoff exchanged worried glances. With a loud voice he yelled,  
"Pendleton is a lying, gutless, sack of-"

"Okay, that's not what I expected." The woman tried to compose herself. "What did he-"

"Your friend has made some very untoward comments about my wife. Specifically, how her face resembles a 50 year old weeper."

Jack snorted as Geoff raised his eyebrows in actual alarm.  
"Well you certainly seem to care a lot about your wife." The woman replied, indicating a hint of mischief in her voice. "At least, for a gentleman who visits the Golden Cat."

"What?" Shaw spluttered. "How did you-"

"And visiting a premature ten year old girl, too? Dearie me, is your wife aware of any of these suspicious activities you take part in?" Switching to a younger voice, she eerily parroted _"Of course I'm available sir, would you like me to sing a song for you?"_

Lord Shaw choked. "How...how did you...how dare you! Let's see if your aim is as sharp as your wit!" _Oh here we go._ Jack thought, grimly. "Sir, are you implying that-"

"Yes."

"Against a woman?"

"Yes!"

"But she's a lady! Have you no-"

"Are you questioning my orders, guardsman?" Shaw's voice has taken a quiet and deadly turn.

Jack sighed again. "Very well then, Lord Shaw requests to defend his honour in a duel, against this anonymous...lady... who stands in the place of Treavor Pendleton."

"I accept the duel against Lord Shaw." The woman was wearing a veil, but she was blatantly smiling.

"On my command, you will turn and fire." Geoff said while Jack was sweating indefinitely.

 _I didn't ask for this_. When Pendleton had handed the note to her just before getting into Samuel's boat, Emily had thought it would be a request for an allegiance or something of that sort. _Oh well_. The flintlock was heavy in her grip, but the Outsider's mark (though invisible and unnoticed by the many guests who were spectating) was cool on her hand, and the slingshot fit snugly in her pocket.

"You will turn in three...two...one...Fire!" Emily span around with, her fingers on her left hand snapping together. Lord Shaw's shadow tripped him, and he let out a surprised cry as he fell, his flintlock firing blindly into the air. Emily had more accuracy, her bullet slamming into one of the large red balloons that hung in the air, the whale oil lamp inside it exploding. As the two guards covered their eyes to shield themselves from the glass and lightly burning remnants, Emily drew her slingshot and scooped up a pebble, firing it at Lord Shaw's facial area. There was a satisfying _thunk_ , and he lay still. The two guards turned to face her as she dropped the still smoking flintlock on the ground.

"Is he!?-" Geoff blurted out but was cut off by Emily.

"Dead?" She dusted her hands off and walked towards them. "I shouldn't think so. That was fun though, is there anything else I can do here?"

The stunned duo looked at each other. "Well..." said one, awkwardly.

"There's always the Guessing Game?" The other piped up. Emily titled her head in curiosity. "Guessing Game?"

"Yeah. Everyone gets one chance to guess the real identities of the Boyle triplets, which one is in which dress. If you get them all right, you win the Boyle cameo, which is probably worth more than we earn, combined, in a year."

Emily smiled, and then looked towards Lord Shaw's unconscious form. "Do tidy him up, won't you?" With that, she turned on her heel and returned inside. _A difficult game for the self-obsessed upper class, surely._ She thought, cracking her knuckles. _But it is the Empress' duty to know her people_.

 _And mother was always one for whispering secrets to me._ She thought with a sad smile.

The Boyle in the red dress laughed, slapped an aristocrat on the back, and continued around the table. "Care for a drink?" She turned to see a veiled woman offering her a glass.

"I'm afraid I'm already seeing two of you darling." Boyle chuckled. "Though if you're trying to make a pass at me, feel free to continue."  
The veiled woman set the glass down. "Dearie me, flirting with someone you don't even know, and a woman no less?" She shrugged. "I suppose it doesn't surprise me. I recall you once made a pass at the Royal Protector...Esma Boyle."

Esma laughed. "Oh, well done. So you're really making a pass for the cameo, are you not?"

The veiled woman nodded. "You were the easiest decision, no offence meant. Now if you will excuse me, I'm about to make my next guess."

._.

The Boyle in white was passing through the main entrance room when her ears pricked up. Was that the audiograph player? No, that was a harpsichord going from D to F sharp major. Intrigued, she walked quickly towards the music room, where a woman in a veil was performing a beautiful rendition of Sokolov's 3rd minuet. Boyle stood watching until the end of the piece, before walking forwards slowly and clapping. In fact, the performance had drawn quite a crowd, including both her sisters in red and black. "Very well done." She called to the veiled musician, who had stood and given a deep curtsey, much to the small crowd's amusement. "I noticed you converted it into D and increased the tempo slightly, it made it more satisfying when you-"

"Converted it to the enharmonic minor?" The musician replied, a smile in her voice. "I'm afraid you give me too much credit, I had a very good teacher. However, you have just given yourself away. Only one of the Boyles has such musical understanding and interest, and I recall you proved it when you played for the empress once, Lydia Boyle."

There was an "Oooh" among the converging crowd as Lydia Boyle nodded at Emily's success, and the veiled woman turned towards the final Boyle in black. "And that makes you Waverly Boyle. I had no special plan concocted to discover your identity, but I am familiar with the process of elimination."

"Well well well..." Waverly exclaimed. "It looks like we have a winner!" The crowd gave a cheer.

 _Well that went much better than expected_. Emily thought, as the three Boyles led her upstairs to obtain her prize. Esma Boyle had once tried to flirt with Corvo; it had been hilarious to watch him throw her out of Dunwall tower. And she _was_ thankful to her music teacher, after all, he had written that piece. Inventions, paintings, music...Sokolov was ever destined to create, in any fashion he tried his hand at. The stationed guards nodded to her and the three Boyles as they passed through into the bedrooms of the three women, where they were apparently keeping the prize, and Emily got a glimpse at a letter lying open on the side.

 _"I know you will look wonderful in black...sorry I couldn't be there...My beloved Waverly..."_

It was signed by Hiram Burrows. The newly appointed Lord Regent. Emily looked up at Waverly, in her black dress and reserved attitude. Interesting. She innocuously made a grabbing motion with her marked hand. A small sphere of gold light, invisible to all but her, floated above that black mask and hat. Smiling, Emily prepared to receive her prize.

She made a quick escape after that, politely declining the offers of drinks and further conversation. When finally she made it to the alleyway outside the house, she returned to her normal size and face, taking a deep breath. Maintaining a spell for that long had been difficult, she had been surreptitiously sipping from the blue magical remedies made by Piero throughout the evening. Suddenly, a continuously loud stomping noise came from the next street down, and she smiled.

Sticking to the shadows next to the street, Emily watched as the same patrolling tallboy walk past. Making the same gripping motion with her hand, a golden orb appeared over the tallboy's head, and with it, a long golden link stretching over to the Boyle manor to where she knew Waverly Boyle was socialising with the upper class. Emily then grappled up to the back of the tallboy, and softly began to sing into his ear.

 _"Ba, ba, black sheep, have you any wool...  
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full..."_

Across the link, Waverly stiffened, the domino effect bringing the notes to her mind where no-one else could hear it. Shaking, she suddenly grabbed a pistol from a nearby guard's pocket, and fired it into the glass chandelier. Screaming, she clubbed an aristocrat in the back, and ran after another, as chaos ensued in the party.

 **So now i've beaten the sequel twice and have a few months until my next few tests, it's open season on this fic! Yay! Thanks to my new Beta for checking over this for me: SwoedPro51. And we get to see Emily's domino power manifest! WOOO!**


	22. Act 4: Aftermaths

Preparations

"Wait, you can't swim?"

"I live in Dunwall! Where am I supposed to swim, the Wrenhaven? The river krusts would kill me!"

Admiral Havelock took a deep breath before walking down into the main bar. The two children were chatting and breaking their fast in one of the side booths. Samuel stood behind the counter, and gave Havelock a nod as he walked in.  
"Morning admiral."

"Morning Sam." Havelock leaned on the bar table. "Could I get a bottle of whiskey?"

"This early sir?"

Havelock chuckled. "With the way things have been going recently, what's early?" Samuel nodded in understanding and reached beneath the counter. "Must be difficult, pinning all your hopes on a witch you don't even know."

 _Four hours previously_

"Tonight." Said the Void Singer. She was standing outside Havelock's open window. "Have your boatman ready. I intend to finish this tonight."

Havelock looked at her steadily. "What's the point in doing all this for us? What are you going to get out of it anyway?"  
"I bet a coin of 20 on it." She giggled and tilted her head at him. "What, you think I have some mysterious agenda behind my actions? I have my own reasons for hating Daud and for hating Burrows, and I mean no harm to you, little miss Kaldwin, or the rest of the group here at the Hound Pits." She jumped down from the sill towards him, shocking him a little as he backed up a step. "Just relax. One last heist, and then you'll never see me again." There was a bright flicker of blue, and she was gone, leaving a slightly confused, and worried, Havelock behind.

 _Present_

Havelock laughed, grimly. "You have no idea, old friend."

Samuel shrugged, surreptitiously glancing towards Emily. "Well, I might have some idea. By the way, have you seen Pierro?"  
"He'll be talking with Sokolov again." Havelock sighed. "I can't tell if they hate each other or they're the best of comrades."

._.

"Aaah, you had some!" Sokolov grasped the bottle of king street brandy through the bars of the cage. "You know what they say about this stuff, don't you?"  
"A drop of whale oil in every bottle." Pierro nodded. "Preposterous, of course."  
Sokolov chuckled. "Did you know, I once found myself determined to discover whether or not that drop was there? I spent a week comparing boiling points, trying to stop samples combusting...then I realised I'd already drunk all the brandy I had!" They both laughed heartily.

._.

"We're almost there." Havelock stated. He, High Overseer Martin, and Treavor Pendleton were all stood around the bar. Emily was stood there too, on a stool, bringing her to about their head height. "One last heist to put this unpleasant business behind us."

Treavor spoke up. "Once Hiram is dealt with, we can appear in court and reveal that we've been keeping Emily here safe during this time of unrest."  
"I will once again assure the world that all claims of her heresy are false," Martin added. "And it will be little trouble to ensure Emily is reinstated as empress." He looked at her with a smile. "Better make sure that dress is clean, m'lady."  
Emily seemed to find that funny.

"Speaking of 'dealing with' Hiram, how do we know what our...agent...will do to him?" Pendleton spoke up. "Her remarkably passive methods have worked out well so far, but they do lend a certain unpredictability to the consequences, compared to, say...a blade in the back."  
All three turned to Emily at that, who exclaimed "Ah. Adult talk." And turned around with her fingers in her ears. "And perhaps a more prudent question," Martin said, more quietly. "what will we do about the witch when our business is concluded?"

All eyes turned to Havelock, who very deliberately directed his eyes to Thomas across the room. The witch's accomplice, not looking at them, per se, but almost definitely listening. "We will do nothing." He said, just as deliberately. "As long as the void singer leaves the regency alone when this is concluded, she will be free, and hopefully we shall never have to deal with her again."  
Emily, not plugging her ears nearly as effectively as she could be, smiled in relief.

"It seems impossible." Pierro remarked, passing Sokolov a glass. "That something so little as a drop of whale oil could occupy our attention so, now that everything has gone so pear shaped. But I imagine that after we return to normal life, such things will seem all-important once again."  
"Such is human nature." Sokolov replied, pouring for the both of them. "When the drought comes we beg for snow, when the blizzards come we beg for beating sunlight. And when the temperature is just right? Well, then we find something else to complain about. Petty, perhaps, but it's how humans improve, adapt, and become something better."  
Pierro raised his glass. "To all our problems, then?"

"Here;here!"

 **Edit: My Beta hascome through for me, so here's a slightly prettier chapter!**


	23. Act 5: Chapter 20: Return to the tower

Return to the Tower

"This is ridiculous." Said Treavor Pendleton. "There's no such thing as a free lunch. No one does this and expects nothing in return! It's too good to be true!"

" _Oh Treavor."_ Responded the Void Singer. " _You're the youngest of three. You're used to unfairness. But in truth the universe doesn't care whether something is 'too good to be true' and neither do I."_

They were in the Hound Pits. Just about everyone was gathered outside by the small port, Samuel and Thomas waiting in the boat, the rest facing Emily (not that they recognised her) stood just before it.

"But it is as we agreed." Admiral Havelock pressed. "You will ensure Burrows is either dead or disgraced. And then you will be gone."

The witch inclined her head. " _As you say."_ She turned to get into the boat, before pausing. " _By the way, there is one thing I would ask of you."_

Everyone sucked in a breath.

" _If and when you cure the rat plague, do make sure Thomas gets cured relatively quickly."_

And everyone exhaled. Amidst the hurried acquiescing from both scientists, she stepped onto the boat, and Samuel guided it out and onto the Wrenhaven.

._.

"This is it, my lady." Samuel stated. They boat was floating outside the large water-gate that would lift floating vessels up to the Empress' tower…if they were supposed to be there. Emily straightened her dress, checking all the extra pockets Pierro had added at her request. "Slingshot, check. New spyglass, check. Assorted whalebone runes and charms, check. Awesome street rat partner?"

Thomas grinned. "Check. How do you want to play this one?"

"Quiet, fast, and hard." She replied. "At this point the biggest threats are the tallboys, and those are easy enough to dodge."

"Be careful." Sam cautioned. "Burrows has been beefing up security ever since you started your attacks."

Emily turned to him and smiled. "Don't worry. I'll come back intact." She turned towards the lift and prepared a grapple. "Burrows though…I make no promises about him."

In another moment, the two were darting up the water lift.

._.

A stone hit a guard in the head, and he crumpled. Another turned upon hearing his form crumple to the floor, but with a blur Thomas was in his face and slammed him against the wall. Emily ran past and out into the courtyard. The same courtyard she had last been in…well, only a few weeks ago, but it felt so much longer. It was certainly different. Where she and Corvo had played hide and seek, Tallboys' mechanical legs clanked along the cobbles. Where she had sat with Thomas singing nursery rhymes, electricity sparked between arc pylons. She flexed her fingers. When she was empress, it would all be torn down. She supposed she could start that now. A blink sat her atop a Tallboy's head, and a shrill whistle alerted the other. It turned to her, even as the one beneath her flailed to get her off. The other prepared to fire at her, and Thomas slammed a fist into its foot. The unnaturally powerful strike buckled the metal, and its rider's shot was thrown off, hitting the feet of its fellow Tallboy rather than Emily on its head. She leapt off, and then grappled, landing by the power source of the arc throwers and unceremoniously pulling the whale oil tank out. Shouts were being raised now, and she moved faster. Pebbles flew, as did fists, and guards crumpled. They landed outside the main door of the tower, and Thomas gave Emily a not-so-mocking bow. She walked up and threw open the doors.

"…I assure you Lord Regent, there is no way anyone will be able to-Huh?" The red uniform signified the man speaking as the head of guard for the tower, but the box he was talking to was a contraption Emily didn't recognise. She made a tugging motion at him as he raised his gun up to her, and his shadow flowed up his form. It didn't trip him though. It's arms reached around his neck. The two other guards in the room staggered backwards in fear as their captain flailed around, before falling unconscious, a victim to choking from his own shadow. Then they turned back to the two intruders.

"Nice power." Thomas mentioned. "That's a new variation, I sup- Oh come on, you two? Really?" Jack and Geoff looked at each other feeling somehow guilty. Thomas rolled his eyes. "Every time I go out- How do you two keep getting promoted?"

They shrugged. "I mean." Jack moved to respond. "We keep being the only ones left conscious after you two come through."

" **Guards? What is going on out there? Talk to me!** "

Emily walked up to the box. On it was…some sort of moving painting. And the image was of Hiram Burrows. She walked up to it, and the image recoiled at her presence. " **What? You-Who are you?** " Without making any conscious decision about it, she pulled up the veil. "Hello Hiram."

There was silence from the box. "It's been some time" Emily continued, casually. "Since that day, hasn't it? No, don't say anything. We'll talk properly in a few minutes when I get up to you. Feel free to take a seat and wait. Nothing can stop me after all." The screen went back. Satisfied, Emily put the veil back down, and turned to Thomas, who had shooed off the two reoccurring guards and was looking at her with amazement on his face. "What?" She asked.

"It's just…" Thomas struggled to find the words. "That was an empress speaking, right there."

Emily blushed under the veil, but didn't know how to respond. Shrugging, she turned, and moved further into the mansion.

._.

Burrows hadn't done as she had requested, of course. His bedroom was empty. "He must still be in the tower." Emily said, looking around. "He probably has a saferoom somewhere…" She spotted a combination safe built into the wall of the room, and pointed to it. "Can you get that open?" With a heave, Thomas tore the front of the safe clean off. Emily saw the contents, a letter, an audiograph, and a serious stack of gold. She picked the letter up, and read through it quickly.

 _Burrows._

 _You requested a dead empress and a captured child. Yet you neglected to tell me about Corvo, and therefore I lost a good man. In that, we both failed, and so I will not request more money for the inconvenience. But this talk of a witch-daughter interests me. You want her out of the way, which I understand. Rest assured, if I find Emily Kaldwin, you will not see her again._

 _Daud._

Emily looked up from it. She couldn't quite bring herself to smile, but…

"What does it say?" Thomas asked, eagerly.

"I think we need to listen to that audiograph." Emily stated, carefully. "Because I think I know a way to finish Hiram off for good."

 **No more excuses; i cant write if i'm not inspired. But now you have a backlog, and weekly chapters for like three weeks.**


	24. Act 5: Chapter 21: Target: Hiram Burrows

Target: Hiram Burrows

Thomas made his way up to the top of one of the tower's…. towers. He didn't know what it was called, Emily had just pointed. But the top was exactly what she had said it would be, a small room filled with machinery and a small, middle aged man sat beside them. He flinched upon seeing Thomas, but the ten-year-old raised his hands peacefully. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you." One hand opened, revealing what was clenched within. "Actually, I have a job I need your help with."

._.

Hiram stood, not sat, by the large table in the centre of the room. It's surface was a map of the Empire, an empire that should, by any rights, have been his. _Was_ his. But with a dreadful feeling of certainty, it seemed to be falling out from beneath him; or disappearing in mist as though he had never had it in the first place. But that was _Impossible._ He shook himself, and forced himself to look outwards. Beyond the wall of light that covered the only entrance to his saferoom, a tallboy clanked along the corridor. Elite guard patrolled along with it. Overseers, much as he despised them, were there as well, playing the music boxes that he had once doubted could stop supernatural attacks. Now though, he would take what he could get. _I'm safe. No one but me is keyed to this wall of light, no one but me can get in, I can see it's still sparking-_

"Hello again Hiram." He froze. Not deliberately of course, he wasn't that afraid, but he felt practically anchored in place. "You've certainly outdone yourself. And all for little old me! Insufficient of course, but I appreciate it."

"Please." He growled. "Enough with your witchery nonsense, Emily Kaldwin."

There was a pause. "Very well." And then his feet turned. Looking down, he saw his shadow moving his body like a puppet. Looking up, he saw her, stood in the corner of the room. Her eyes burned. "You disgusting, traitorous…Worm!"

Hiram snorted in derision. "Please. You will never understand what I've done to this nation."

"Thrown it into chaos? Destroyed most of its population? Oh, I think I do understand. I've _seen_ it."

"What you've _seen_ is the damage dealt to the poor. The homeless. The gangs! The wretched scum that have been ruining Dunwall since it's conception! Can you truly tell me that any one of them is worth the square metre they live on?"

Emily smiled wistfully and looked down. "Yes. I can."

He snorted again. "Then you are a fool, just like your mother." Her eyes snapped up at that and he continued. "Oh yes, she expressed the same sentiment. All she had to do was leave them be and let the plague take them, but no! She had to burn through all the funding we had trying to help them!"

"Because my mother was kind!"

"No, your mother was _stupid_. I really should have thanked you when you killed her."

Tears in her eyes, Emily took a threatening step forward and the hands of Hiram's shadow tightened around his throat. "You saw what happened to your head guard." She said in a tone few would ever expect to hear on a ten year old girl. "I could always make them squeeze harder."

Burrows let out a choked laugh. "Please do! You believe you've found the heart of corruption at the centre of your country. Why don't you cut it out?"

Shaking, she stood there for a long moment. Then she stepped back. "No. I won't become what you are. I will _never_ become what you are."

He grinned. "Then I'm afraid it's checkmate dear. I knew you would lack resolve, just the same as your mother. Do you know I almost liked Corvo Attano for he occasionally made her take responsibility. Now, though? If you won't kill me, there is nothing you can do to keep me from this tower."

And Emily began to laugh. It was a beautiful sound, laced with something fear-inducing, but there was nothing magical about it. It was all her. "That's where you're wrong. You believe evil cannot be stopped without becoming just as bad as the evil-doer. That's what your experience as a spymaster has taught you. Me? I was raised on fairy tales." An ominous crackling came from the audio system on the desk. Emily looked up at him and smiled. "There's always another way."

The audio system began to let out words. They were in Hiram's voice. " ** _If I explain then you will see; I am not at fault. My poverty eradication plan was supposed to bring prosperity to the city…"_**

His eyes widened. Emily nodded. "Remember recording this? You really shouldn't leave those audiographs intact, even in a safe."

" ** _And it was a simple plan-Bring the rats in from the pandyssian continent, and let them take care of the poor for us…"_**

Emily straightened. "Hiram Burrows." She intoned. There was a flicker, and another copy of her appeared beside her. "Royal spymaster and now lord regent. For your crimes against the people of my country, you will be placed under arrest by the city watch and be stripped of your position." A third copy of her appeared, on her other side. "The courts will decide your fate." For a moment, all Hiram could see was Jessamine Kaldwin in the place of her daughter. Then all three of her were gone. He barely noticed that the wall of light was down, all he could hear were his own words sealing his doom. From his saferoom's speaker, from the speakers all across the castle, and from every speaker across Dunwall: " ** _…They hid from the catchers, and bred at a sickening rate. Soon it didn't matter, rich, poor, all were falling sick."_**

He turned as guards and overseers began moving through the entrance to his room. "Don't you see?" He yelled, spittle flying from his lips. "This is the witch's doing! You're all bewitched!"

At the head of the group, Jack and Geoff looked at each other, then Jack reached for his handcuffs.

._.

Emily met back up with Thomas where they had promised, in the marble gazebo in the garden. She walked up to a certain spot on the floor. "It was right here." She said, slowly. "This was where…This was where I killed my mother. Thomas put a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. You know that, right?"

She sighed. "I know it's not my fault. I doubt I'll ever forgive myself, but…" She swallowed. "I can't just wallow in self-pity." She turned back to the tower. "Now that this has happened, I have no choice but to take the reins of the empire. So it is my responsibility, if not my fault."

Thomas rolled his eyes. "You and your fancy words." They stood in silence there for a moment. "Come on." He said. "Samuel will be waiting for us."

She nodded distractedly. Then she turned around and moved back towards the water-lift.

 **Woo! victory acheived! But wait...what next?**


	25. Act 5: Aftermaths: Final

Aftermaths: Final

The dishonoured protector

Corvo landed in front of the woman at the dais. He was in the void, he had to be. He had never been to the realm himself, but it was the sort of place that, once you had seen it, could never mistake for anything else. The grass fell away after just a few metres on any side into a bottomless drop. A giant, twisted, leafless tree stretched upwards to the sky. Everything was tinted with an eerie blue glow. The woman turned towards him _Delilah Copperspoon._ The heart pulsed in his pocket. _Delilah Kaldwin, she wishes. She was once like a sister to me; but she was a bastard daughter, and thus could never have the throne. That is why she seeks it._

Delilah raised an eyebrow at him. "Corvo Attano. I was expecting Daud."

"You aren't worth his time." Corvo replied succinctly.

She laughed. "And your time has run out." She gestured behind her. The dais she stood by and the tree weren't the only landmark in the terrain. There was a canvas, and on that canvas, a painting. "My ritual is already complete. My victory is already certain." Lines drew themselves in the ground between her and the canvas, glowing a sickly green. "Within moments, I will become one with the subject of that painting. I will _possess_ it. I will _be_ it." A wind seemed to pick up affecting only her, intensifying every moment, pulling her towards the painting. "Through my masterpiece, I will rule the body of your precious _Emily Kaldwin,_ and through her, rule the empire that should have been mine."

Corvo waited another moment to check she was finished, then shrugged, unfurling a canvass he had in his pocket. "You mean _this_ masterpiece?"

Her face went white. She spun around to see the painting she was actually being pulled towards. He knew what it was, of course, he had switched out the portrait of Emily with another before she had ever seen him. "Perhaps you shouldn't leave other works of art sat around your ritual site." He added, conversationally. She lunged at him, and he gave her a hearty kick to the chest, throwing her backwards onto the grass. She got back up, but by then it was too late. The pull had become too strong. Screaming, she was sucked helplessly into the painting Corvo had switched in. One of the giant tree. He looked up at the plant, satisfied that his work was done, before looking back down at her portrait of Emily. It was an uncanny likeness. Lines of colour, royal purples, blues and reds, crisscrossed the image, giving it seemingly more emotional…depth. Well, he wasn't an artist. Perhaps he should give it to Emily as a gift when she was finally reinstated? Musing, Corvo pocketed it, and headed back to the wider canvas he had used to gain access to the realm.

The Void-Singer

The Hound Pits pub was having a party. Everyone was in good spirits; even Pierro had been persuaded to leave his workshop and come have a drink or two. Thomas was teaching some of the younger maids some silly back street dance. Sokolov was chatting with Samuel at the bar. A few city guards that could be trusted and two Overseers that knew Martin personally were also present, and thankfully keeping mostly to themselves. Emily was, naturally the centre of attention, though it had been agreed that she would be allowed to leave for bed soon. It was almost one o'clock after all, and it wouldn't do for her to be too tired tomorrow when she was reintroduced to the public. "We need a monument to mother." Emily said decisively. "Not a massive statue or anything, but a small monument, in the garden where…you know." Havelock nodded. He was, for the first time he could remember for weeks, in a _good mood_ , and saw no reason to dampen the fires of Emily's excitement. "Of course. That would be appropriate. The fact that the lord regent never set one up himself is another sin to set against him."

"And, we need to-" She paused. "No, everyone still thinks Corvo is a traitor or something, we can't just ask for him to come home. See, I'm being mature!"

Havelock smiled, and Treavor Pendleton added. "It's good that you realise you can't just get everything you want."

Emily nodded. "Well of course. Even mother had to get through ideas parliament and things."

Havelock coughed, feeling obligated to make himself plain now. "More than that. You are still ten. People just aren't going to trust you to make mature decisions on important decisions. You'll be an important figurehead, but you will have to leave some things to me, Treavor and the others until you come of age."

He braced, worried she would take the news poorly. There was a pause where she looked a little dejected, before she came out with "Well, that's alright, I guess. After all, I trust you all!"

Havelock's heart wrenched, just a little. Martin, slightly drunk, walked over with a cry of "Long live the empress!" making her giggle. His eyes caught on her tiara. "Are you still wearing that thing? You know whalebone's supposed to be cursed, right?"

She smiled shyly, not sure what to say, and he took it as a sign to continue. "Come now, an empress with a cursed crown is a bad omen. Give that here-"

He reached out to grab it off her. She reached up to grab at it, instinctively, with her left hand, but she was just too slow and ended up grabbing his wrist while he held the tiara.

In front of them all, the Outsider's mark blazed back into visibility on her skin.

And that was that.

Aftermaths: Final

They all gaped. She snatched the veil back, not yet realising, and moved to put it back on her head. _Then_ she saw the mark. And by then they could all speak again. "You…It was you?" Havelock stammered. "It was you the whole time?"

Slowly, it began to dawn on Emily that now that they had seen the mark on her, the illusion had worn off and now they were _able to know_ that the void singer was her, something they would have realised immediately if the veil hadn't been doing its work. "I…I…"

There was no silence, no dramatic slowing of time. Around them, the party was still in full swing. Everything was balanced like a delicate vase teetering on the edge of its podium. All the three of them didn't seem to know what to say. Then Martin reached to the blade at his belt. The balance tipped, and the vase shattered. Emily's hand flexed and she was gone.

._.

The shouting started moments after that. Yells, orders, all blending into an incomprehensible shout punctuated only by the sound of her own name. She grappled up a staircase, ran onto a balcony, stopped for a moment, then flicked her veil down automatically. The sheer magnitude of what had just happened hadn't caught up to her yet, her brain scrambled with thoughts like _It might not be over, they might still like you, they might not_

 _might_

 _might_

 _might_

A door slammed open and she moved, pulling herself up the roof of Pierro's laboratory, then stopped again because she _still didn't know what to do_ -

There was the crack of a gunshot. She ran, moving towards the rooftop walkway to her room, moving in a blind panic at this point, but just as she doorway she was grabbed and thrown to the floor. There was pain in her back for a moment, and she looked up to see-

"Thomas?" She exclaimed as much as asked. He nodded, then winced. "They…they're after you. They're firing at me! I thought-"

He gasped in pain, and Emily looked at his shoulder and gasped. Blood leaked from a wound. "Thomas! You're hurt!"

"I'm fine." He bit out. He hauled her to her feet. "We need to…I don't know, we need to-"

Footsteps clanked along the walkway. "There! It's the witch! Get her!"

Guards. Ordinary ones, the ones Havelock had brought with him. She flicked a wrist and that one was grabbed about the throat by his own shadow, but the other two raised pistols. Suddenly, Thomas grabbed her about the stomach and jumped, and they were flying away. She looked forwards for their landing zone, but there wasn't one. Just...

Just the angry Wrenhaven river below her. She hit the surface with a splash.

 _ **...**_

 _ ***giggles insanely* You thought this was over?**_


	26. Act 6: Chapter 22: The Whalers

The Whalers

Billie Lurk traversed the rooftops of the flooded district; here 'traversed' meaning 'teleported'. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and Daud as possible. Even now she couldn't believe he'd let her go. Looking down as she judged the distance of her next jump, she saw…something odd. A corpse, which, alone, was entirely common. But it was a corpse in an oddly white dress, floating on a piece of bracken and drifting aimlessly amidst the flooded water. Curious, and suddenly with all the time in the world, she let herself drop down to take a closer look.

Almost remarkably, the moment she lifted the form out of the water, the gunk and dampness slipped right off the fabric, leaving it completely pristine. Even more remarkably, the way the girl shifted slightly, and the slightly above water temperature of her form…

 _My god she's still alive._

._.

Emily woke with a stiff neck, a burning throat, and aches all over. She coughed violently, then opened her eyes.

"Take it easy. Whatever you've gone through, it doesn't look to have been pretty." Emily blinked and turned. She was laying by a fire on a broken and damaged mattress, and crouched beside her…

"Who…Who are you?" She managed to get out.

The woman seemed to hesitate. "It's…Meagan. Meagan…Foster."

Emily blinked, then "There was a boy. With me, a boy. Where is he?"

Meagan frowned. "A boy? You were alone when I found you." She reached forward and handed Emily something on a stick. "Here. Eat this and don't think too hard about what it is."

Emily complied. It was horrible, but hot. She had flashbacks to the last time she'd been in such a horrible position. This wasn't Granny Rags though, and the food wasn't helping her with her magic. "Do you have any Pierro's remedy?" She asked. "The blue medicine?"

'Meagan' chuckled. "Figured you'd ask that." She hooked a vial of it from her very practical looking belt and held that out too. "You know, most people who ask for the blue stuff have a very specific reason for doing so."

Emily froze, and reached up to her tiara, but Meagan chuckled and raised her hands peacefully. "Don't worry. It's still there. I did see you without it, though."

Emily's eyes widened again. " _Relax._ " Meagan emphasised. "Here in the flooded district, that mark means one thing, and no-one wants to mess with the Whalers."

Emily had heard of the flooded district. The once proud financial district had been laid low by the plague, and was now home to nothing but weepers and lowlifes. "Whalers? Who are they?"

Meagan raised an eyebrow. "You aren't with them? Huh, not too surprising. Daud usually waits till a few years older than you to go grabbing kids off the streets.

Emily paused. She had been trying desperately not to think at all for the last few minutes, but that name… "Daud? Daud the assassin?"

Meagan nodded. "The very same. The most powerful assassin in the isles."

Emily looked down to her hand. The mark was invisible again, but she tightened her fist reflexively. "Where is he?"

Meagan gave her a look. "Look, I know it's none of my business what you do, but people don't _look_ for Daud. Either he finds you or he isn't looking."

"He killed my…someone close to me." Emily didn't know how to explain what she wanted. She didn't know what she wanted even was. She just knew that a scene involving whaler masks, blood, and a man in a red coat had been haunting her dreams ever since that day.

Meagan sighed. "From here? Go to the old cathedral spire then keep going until you spot a big statue of the old Empress. Get that close and they'll notice you. But you have to realise; people who go after Daud don't come back. Rival gangs, royal guards, Overseers…"

Emily got to her feet. "What about witches?"

"Those too." Meagan responded, completely nonplussed. "People with marks like yours and people older and more experienced than you. What makes you think you're better than all them?"

There was silence. Then Emily was gone.

Billie Lurk huffed. "Well, she's got the dramatic exit down." She looked after her, towards the building she had spent so much of her life in. _Watch out Daud. I don't know about better than the rest, but this one's…different._ Thoughts of Corvo came to her and she shivered involuntarily. Without any logical way of knowing, she was certain he and this girl were somehow related. _Could she be…No, that's ridiculous._ Shaking her head to clear it, she gathered her things.

._.

Emily encountered the first 'Whaler' after a few minutes of travel, her black eyes spotting him from two rooftops away. The way he occasionally vanished from one roof and reappeared on another was unsettling, to say the least. But she steeled herself. _This man could have been there when my mother was attacked._

She launched a grapple at him and yanked. With force belied by her age, he was pulled off the roof and out to over the water. The surprise didn't last long, a moment later and he appeared on a lamppost a few metres away, looking around with rapid head jerks. A moment later he spotted her, but she had already fired a pebble from her slingshot. He was gone again, and her black eyes spotted him on a higher rooftop pointing towards her with his wrist. She flicked hers and his shadow tripped him, a bolt flying from his wrist but going wide. He teleported again, this time to just beside her but high enough to correct himself and land on his feet. She didn't give him chance to reach for his sword. She grappled for his masked head, and slammed it into the floor. He lay still. A glance from her black eyes confirmed that yes, he was still alive, before she turned away and moved on.

 **Ladies and gentlemen, it is on. prepare for the segment I've been waiting to write since the beginning.**


	27. Act 6: Chapter 23: Reunion

Reunion

Beneath a careful shield of calm that stopped her trying to think overmuch about her situation, Emily allowed herself to think that this was going better than expected. She sat in the dilapidated upper floor of some flooded building, singing softly to herself, and listening to it drive her opponents quite mad. The Overseers' music cut off her powers, but her own melody seemed to affect others in a quite different way. it caused fear in the average person, but the Whalers only seemed to experience pain. It had the downside, of course, of revealing to them exactly where she was. The first crashed through a window towards her, and was quickly dispatched by a pebble to the forehead. The second ducked beneath the projectile, coming up to fire from his wrist projectile. Emily was forced to stop singing and grapple away, being tugged through the air past him and then through the window, out over the floods. With balance gained from a week of intensive parkour, she landed on a bent lamppost. Turning, she saw another Whaler approaching, but before she could react, she was fixed in place. A green glow suffused her. Looking back to the window, that Whaler had grabbed her in one of their more troublesome powers. She recalled it from when it had been used to trap Corvo. The other Whaler that had just approached was loading something whale-oil blue into his wrist launcher. Where had she seen one of those before…

 _Incendiary dart._

The whaler took aim. Emily's grapple couldn't get her out of the Pull power fast enough, unless-

She turned, and grappled the one who was Pulling her. Unprepared for the attack, they were both yanked towards each other, colliding in mid-air and falling towards the floods. The incendiary dart flew over their heads and exploded against the building, causing the whole structure to buckle.

._.

In Daud's personal quarters, they heard a muffled boom. Daud sighed and turned to Corvo, who had just finished debriefing him. "Go and see what that is. I have a recording I need to make."

._.

Emily purposefully strode (as much as is possible with ten-year-old legs) along a rickety bridge just barely above the water's surface. In her right hand, she held a blade she had taken from one of the Whalers. It was practically identical to the one she had held that day. She could see the statue of her mother now, it's imperious gaze staring over her. The houses seemed to part here, leaving only a few roofless buildings leading up to the statue itself, and the building it fronted. Emily knew that building. It was, what, a bank? She had been here when she was very small, before the plague and the ruin that had come with it. There was the telltale, sub-sound of a traversal power being used, and a figure appeared in the sky above her, landing with a thump on the bridge with a lack of damage to his knees that spoke of some related bone charm. This one was…different. Both in the way he carried himself, and his attire. That coat looked almost like Corvo's. She tilted her head at him. "Are you Daud?"

._.

Corvo looked closely at the little girl in white. He felt something…odd, in his chest, a sense of longing, of recognition. But he couldn't possibly know who she was. _She was wearing a veil._

"No." He answered simply. Deciding not to kill the child, he left his Royal Guard's blade in its sheathe. Then he blinked forwards.

._.

 _Well this one's certainly faster than the rest._ Emily was forced to drop the blade she held as she grappled backwards, then lifted one leg as a sleep dart thunked into the wood beneath her, using her left hand to smother down her skirt as she did so to avoid it flapping upwards. Then he was in her face again, reaching out with his hands for her throat, and she skipped backwards. A flick of the wrist and his shadow moved to immobilise him, sliding up his legs and back and grabbing him about the neck. Emily took the opportunity of his immobility to stop, take a pebble from her pocket, and fire it from her slingshot, but even with his airway restricted, he was able to blink out of the way of the projectile. His shadow followed him though, the pressure was maintained, and he was forced to his knees. Emily loaded another stone, and with his last breath, the Whaler used another blink. This time, though, he went straight upwards. Going above the roofs of the houses; the weak sunlight caught him fully, and with his shadow's source so far below, it released him. Emily tutted as she grappled to a higher building. _The others couldn't figure out how to escape the shadow choke either. Who is this man?_

._.

Corvo landed on a roof and sucked in a breath, re-evaluating the girl's threat level. He should have realised that that mark on her wrist put her on the same level as Daud, or Delilah. _Well I beat one of those, and Daud will have his turn too._ Resolving to try harder, he called upon one of his more aggressive powers. A rising motion from his palm brought a swarm of rats out of the ground, all scurrying towards the witch-girl. And then he possessed one of them. From his new low point from amidst the mass of bodies, he watched the girl stand still for a moment. Then her voice hit him like a sledgehammer. It _hurt,_ crashing against his control over his rat's body and threatening to separate him from it. He was buffeted from the side, and clambered atop the body of another rat to-wait, _body_?

He saw, his possessed body giving out a shriek, that the swarm was… _devouring_ itself. No matter, he was close enough. His rat separated from the group and sprinted for her. He saw her ready another shot from that slingshot, and waited until just the right moment-

Brief disorientation, then the pebble smacked against the rat that had already died from him leaving it, and his full human form slammed into her, throwing them both off the roof and back down towards the wooden walkway. They separated in mid-air, and he hit the wood relatively painlessly, while she was forced to grapple a higher object to slow her fall. She landed next to the blade she had dropped earlier though, and picked it up in two hands.

 _Fine then. If I must._ This was going to be hard. He had picked up most of the powers worryingly fast, but this next was something only Daud had yet been capable of; the one thing that made him unassailable to all those his power had bled out to. Corvo was not a religious man, but he took his procuring it as a sign. With another gesture from his hand, and an almost staggering drain from his magic reserves, time around Corvo froze to a standstill.


	28. Act 6: Chapter 24: Target: Daud

Target: Daud

Emily noticed as everything stopped moving. The biggest giveaway was the water; it's distinctive rushing noise had stopped, and at a glance, it seemed to be frozen in place. Her body felt fine, moving normally, but her Outsider's mark burned; she had the distinct impression that _this wasn't something it was conditioned to deal with_. Her opponent, however moved fast. _Really_ fast. He drew a blade from a sheath that she felt she ought to recognise but she didn't because of how fast it was going, and she barely brought her own weapon up to stop herself from being bisected, instead she was knocked back into a jump and landed metres away, but he was upon her again the moment her heels touched the wooden boards.

 _Now or never I suppose._ She called upon the power she had last attained, almost accidentally, when she had confronted Hiram Burrows, and hadn't had a chance to test out since. Beside her, two copies of her assembled out of the shadows. Two more little veiled girls in white dresses appeared, wielding two more blades, and they swung back at her aggressor. She had no experience in swordsmanship, introductory fencing lessons prepared her in no way for wielding a dagger half as big as she was. But there was three of her, and her clones didn't seem to care about muscle pain, and between them swinging wildly they were able to survive the assassins lightning fast onslaught. For a few seconds at least. It wasn't long before the rightmost clone was impaled, vanishing into shadows. Emily backed away as the other clone was swiftly dispatched. Her only thought was to make a grabbing motion towards herself, then towards him as he turned to her and blinked forwards. The kick caught her in the stomach and threw her backwards, the pain igniting her ribs in protest. After a second, the domino power she had cast on herself kicked in, the attack transmitted along the connection to her opponent and forcing him backwards a few steps, though the larger man took the attack a lot better than she had. But it was enough. The river started flowing again. The pain in her mark relented. Her opponent returned to moving at normal speed, then sagged. The power had clearly taken a lot out of him. _Now._ "You are Daud, aren't you?" She said, staggering to her feet. He had to be. None of the other Whalers could do anything like this. _He did this. Hiram orchestrated it, but_ He _started all of it._ The Whaler moved back a step. Gripping the dagger in her right hand, she broke into a run. He blinked away, and she followed, grappling after him. The time between his traversals had gone up significantly, a sign that he was at rock bottom in terms of power. Emily, on the other hand, still had a few spells left in her. She caught up to him just as he reached the statue, and there she struck. His shadow on the dirtied marble reached out to grab him, pinning him against the statue's lower face. His left hand stretched out to the side, but she wasn't having any of it, launching a grapple, the blue tendril caught him around the hand and pulled her towards him. The man to his shadow and Emily to the man, she was anchored against the essentially vertical surface of the statue through the mark on her left hand. Her feet braced against the surface and her right hand, still holding the blade, pulled away, preparing to thrust back against the man's unprotected chest. _Kill him kill him kill-_

Emily froze. Because _she_ was right there. Above the Whaler's head, as she traced the contours of the statues face…There were the lips that had kissed her forehead at night. There were the eyes that had shone so brightly in life. Watching her was the face of her mother, Jessamine Kaldwin. Emily choked back a breath, the blade falling from lifeless fingers. And then the Whaler headbutted her.

._.

The tendril broke, as did the shadow, and Corvo fell. The girl essentially went limp, dropping away from him as they both went plummeting away from the statue. When he realised she clearly was not about to save herself, he grabbed her, and then launched one last blink to put them both on a rooftop before they gained too much momentum. He still landed hard though, crashing into the stone with a grunt as the girl rolled away from him. They both lay there for a few moments, panting, before Corvo slowly crawled to his feet. The girl barely managed to kneel, resting mostly on her hands. "Why." She whimpered. He tilted his head at her, genuinely curious. "Why did you kill her?"

 _Does she think I'm...?_ The heart in his pocket was beating wildly as he replied with "Kill who?"

At that, she pointed behind him. "My mother." He turned, wondering who she could possibly mean. None of the other Whalers were nearby, her fingers almost seemed to be pointing at the…statue…

The statue that had caused him no end of stress ever since he'd first seen it. Of all the places for Daud to be based, had he had to pick a building with a giant statue of the Empress.

Empress Kaldwin. His Empress.

Suddenly that veil didn't seem to mean anything at all.

"…Emily?" She twitched at the name. "Emily Kaldwin, is that you?"

Almost as though she couldn't bear to wear it any longer, the girl grabbed her veil and hurled it to the side, sending it skittering into some debris. She looked up, and his heart broke. Grabbing the back of his Whaler mask, he slowly pulled it over his head, matted hair falling over his shoulders from too long under the sweaty thing. She gasped. "Corvo? Is it, is… _Corvo_?"

He staggered forward and fell to his knees in front of her, then grabbed her in the tightest hug he'd ever given to her. They sat there for a long moment, wrapped in each other's arms. Both finally unmasked, neither hiding the tears streaming down their cheeks. But it was okay. Neither was looking.

 **Okay, this chapter messed up, my bad. Fixed now.**


	29. Act 6: Aftermaths

Aftermaths: The family reunited

It was a long few minutes before the pair got to their feet, though Corvo kept his hands firmly on her shoulders. "What are you doing working with…these people?" She asked.

"It's a long story." Corvo sighed. "What are you doing with…that?" He gestured to the mark on her hand.

"It's a long story." She giggled a little.

Corvo looked back up to the statue. "You nearly killed me back there."

Emily sobered. "I know. I thought you were Daud. But I couldn't even kill _him._ Not in front of mother."

Corvo looked at her sharply. "Have you? Killed, I mean?"

She shook her head vehemently, and he let out a breath in relief. "At least there's that. But still…you're not the same little girl anymore, are you?"

Emily looked down. "I don't think so, no. It's not been long, but…Corvo it's all gone!" She gestured helplessly. "My mother is dead, I destroyed half the old political scene trying to get back into power, and then the people who were helping me betrayed me the moment they saw I was a witch, my only friend is gone, and I don't even know _where_ he is. I'm…I'm alone."

"Not anymore." Corvo responded firmly. Then he paused. "Actually…." He reached into one of the pockets of his coat. Emily watched in fascination as he pulled out some sort of heart; the scientific one, not the love heart she saw on decorations sometimes. This one however was covered in mechanical additions, and it was… _beating._

And then, in a voice she had gone too long without hearing, " _Oh, my dear Emily. How you've grown!"_

She gasped. "The Outsider's doing." Corvo explained. "A present as much as a torture device for me. She is dead, but…it's her."

 _"_ _I'm sorry I had to leave you. In death, my separation from you was my only regret. If only this form allowed me to wrap my arms round you one last time…"_

Emily reached forward instinctively, but her arms fell straight through the heart as though it wasn't even there. "Mum…what do I do?"

 _"_ _It's…so hard for me to feel like this, so hard for me to care. All I am meant to do is hear, and say. But…"_ There was a pause, as the heart continued to be slowly. _"I care for you both. I care for my people."_

Flakes of the heart began to peel off, turning to ash and blowing away in the wind. " _You are strong now, Emily. I have seen you. You are strong enough to lead this Empire, if you wish. Or don't. All I want is for you to be happy."_

The Outsider had clearly decided that they had had enough time to talk. The heart was disintegrating as they watched, spellbound. " _My job is done. It's time for me to go. Only remember…Emily, Corvo…I love you."_

A few metal scraps fell to the floor, and the two were left alone.

The traitors to the crown

Havelock slammed the whiskey bottle onto the table. "Sokolov, Pierro and Samuel have already abandoned me, I will not have this from you two as well!"

"We aren't _betraying_ you damnit Havelock, just think about this!" Martin appealed.

They were on a boat. A large, official looking boat, on the way to a new lighthouse that Burrows had begun construction on. "What is there to talk about?" Havelock snarled. "Aren't you a man of the Abbey?"

"Yes, this overly pompous uniform isn't for nothing." Martin responded, frustrated. "It's just…Everything the abbey's teachings tell me of witches is like night to day when compared to that girl!"

"Are we waxing poetic again?" Pendleton spoke up from his position sat at the table. He was quite drunk.

"Nothing poetic about it." Martin snapped. "To be honest I can't think of a single stricture she has broken, barring lying tongue, of course…though did she ever really lie to us?"

"As much as I often find myself irritated by children, I can't say I ever disliked her." Pendleton admitted. "Do you know: when I asked her to deliver a letter to the ever vile lord Shaw, the confrontation ended with him unconscious and embroiled in quite a large scandal!" He laughed to himself.

"And again, I say, there is _nothing_ to _talk about._ " Havelock responded. "We have been _seen_ with the girl, and as far as the rest of the isles are concerned, she is on this very boat. As far as our most trusted guards are concerned, she has been kidnapped by the urchin boy, and any witches discovered are to be taken _alive_ for interrogation."

He sat down heavily. "Besides, she'll be back soon enough. Heavens know she's broken into my room to many times to count. Another few days and we'll have the empire, mark my words."

The other two exchanged glances, but said nothing.

The Knife of Dunwall

Daud was just thinking that Corvo was taking a rather long time with this one before the door to his office slammed open. Looking up, he saw Corvo, mask-less, and a little girl wearing a bone tiara who he'd last seen in Dunwall tower.

"Ah. I see you've found her then." He said, conversationally.

Others wouldn't have been able to see the resulting blur of motion (because no time actually passed when it occurred) But it resulted with a window being blown out and Daud being thrown bodily from the room and crashing onto the roof of a nearby building. He spat some blood out his mouth and looked up at the two stood over him, judge and jury. He wondered who would be the executioner.

"Wait." He held up a hand to try and forestall the blow. "I know this may seem an unreasonable request, but…I ask for my life. I've had enough killing. All I want is to leave this life behind me."

His eyes focused on Corvo. They had discussed this moment, the two of them.

 _"_ _You don't need to tell Emily that I helped you save her life."_ He had said. _"If she needs a boogeyman to hate I'll be it, I am for almost the whole of Dunwall already. I wonder, when you find her, will you come back to kill me, knowing me as you do?"_

 _"_ _I don't know you."_ Corvo had responded, to which Daud had laughed grimly. _"You don't? Perhaps try looking in the mirror. We aren't too different, you and I. perhaps if I'd had someone to protect, I would have…but the point is moot."_

He looked up at that man now. And that man turned to Emily. Emily looked at Daud, and then slowly paced towards him. He remained kneeling, knowing any further show of aggression would be his last. "I was expecting a monster." She said, quietly with her height, she was at his eye level. "What with the masks, and the magic…I didn't expect to find a man."

She stood up. "Corvo didn't let his hate for you cloud his judgement. Neither will I. Go. Put down your blade and find some other life. This is not a decision I will be able to make again."

Turning, she nodded to Corvo, and they began to walk away. Daud had a distinct feeling of being dismissed. "So that's your choice? Interesting." He mumbled under his breath. As the Empress and her protector walked away, he returned to a standing position. And vanished into the shadows.

 **Sorry about the wait, Christmas happened. Next weeks chapter should be up on time though; i'm reaching the end of my backlog but plan to write a lot more.**


	30. Act 7: Chapter 25: Rats and Rags part 2

Rats and rags: part two

Ex-High Overseer Campbell shuffled aimlessly along cold stone. He could _feel_ the plague at the corner of his mind. His arms had gone numb already, though they still could move, and the brand on his cheek itched incessantly. He refused to scratch it tough. _Wandering hands…_ Repeating the strictures had only done so much to keep him sane. Especially here, in the great sprawling sewers of Dunwall, where rats would eat you or be your only meal, depending on how many there were at once. With a jolt, a hand reached up from the disgusting water running through the canal and grasped the stone edge. The hand was starkly lit by the large white spotlight resting in the corner and illuminating this part of the sewer. Campbell barely paid it any mind. Either it was a weeper, and it would ignore him, or it was a healthy person, in which case it would also ignore him. The stone cracked under the harsh grip of the small hand, then, with a loud splash, it's owner thrust itself from the water with surprising force and landed on its arms and knees. It retched up sewer water. "Outsider's eyes, my kingdom for Emily's dress right now…" It spluttered out.

 _Emily?_ The name registered through the fog in Campbell's mind, and he turned to the figure. His eyes widened. " _You!"_ His voice was raspier than he remembered, and a little blood spat out. The boy turned and saw him, then startled, jumping to his feet. " _You?"_ He echoed. "What are you…oh boy what _are_ you?" Campbell glared at the street rat, arms twitching involuntarily. _Well, look at that. I can feel them again._ He walked forward. "You little runt. You _ruined_ me. I had everything, and I have _nothing_ now and it's the fault of you and your damned witch empress!"

The boy was taking in ragged breaths. "Nothing, huh? Welcome to the club." Campbell lunged towards him, but Thomas swatted at him irritably. The strike actually forced him backwards a few steps. "Don't bother. I guess I do have something, and it puts me above you." The boy shrugged off a sopping jacket, then began unwinding bandages from about his midriff. "Not much point stopping the damn thing getting infected, I guess…" He mumbled to himself. He threw the saturated, off-white fabrics away, revealing-

Campbell stepped back. "What…What is-"

Pus was oozing from the wound in a steady stream now. Black veins spread from the area up his chest and down his legs, while the whole surrounding area was a horrid green. The boy wrung out the brown jacket with muscles that were entirely disproportionate to a child his age.

"Yeah. It's bad. Remedies can't make it any better than this now. I couldn't bring myself to show it to Emily." He looked over to Campbell. "Don't suppose you've seen her? We got split up when we hit the river. _Really_ should have learned to swim."

"Mother's mercy what happened to you boy?" Campbell exclaimed. He got a laugh in response.

"Waaaay too much. _You_ started this, you son of a hagfish, but you've been punished enough. The rest was Granny Bloody Rags."

Campbell let out a gasp, and the boy looked at him inquisitively, putting his sleeves back through the slightly-less-wet jacket. "You know her?"

Campbell gulped. "She…" He looked around furtively. "She owns these sewers."

._.

Emily kneeled by the pothole, looking up doubtfully at the lord protector. "How exactly do you _know_ about all these?"

She and Corvo had come to a tentative agreement. As much as the idea of her getting into any danger registered to him as Not Allowed, (And her pointing out that she had technically beaten him did nothing to sway him on that matter) he had agreed that leaving her in the flooded district was similarly inconceivable, and that she would only be safe enough to stay in one place when she was Empress. Meaning that they were going back to the Hound Pits pub.

"It's my job." he replied simply. He looked around, then jumped down the pothole, and looked around again, before gesturing her to follow him. Having confirmed for herself using her black eyes that there was no one nearby, she followed him down into the sewer. "So, what's the plan?"

Corvo walked up to her and covered one of her ears protectively. She smiled up at the gesture, glad that even in situations like this, he was able to reassure her.

He frowned, then grabbed her hand and put it on her other ear. Then he pulled out a pistol and fired it at a wooden palisade in the corner. She squeaked a little, and felt somewhat silly. Corvo moved towards the hole in the floor the wood had been covering, looking at the rushing water beneath it, then back at her. "We're going to need to swim."

._.

Thomas came to a stop in front of a large chamber. Flickering lights lit the sewer behind him, but ahead it was dark, too dark for him to see anything at all without his magic and he _wasn't_ making his wound any worse. "Hello?" He called out. The call echoed throughout the chamber. There was some whimpering, then smacking footsteps. A girl, far older than Emily but still hardly a woman, appeared out of the dark, clothes tattered. She staggered to a stop when she saw him. "Please. Please, you have to save me! She wants to-Granny wants to-"

Another voice cut through the darkness, cracked and high pitched. "Ooh, look at this! Her majesty's little friend has come back for a check-up! Come now, let me have a look at you!"

Spotlights throughout the room slammed on. Thomas saw the carcass of a whale high above him, a dirty bathtub, and-

His breath caught in his throat. He staggered backwards, falling to the floor as rats; dozens, _hundreds_ of them came skittering towards him over the dirt floor. Screams echoed throughout the chamber.

 **well it looks like its going to be down to my own discipline from now on, because i'm all caught up with these chapters**


End file.
